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GATEWAY SERIES 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

OF 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

EDITED BY 

ALBERT HENRY SMYTH 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA 
EDITOR OF *' THE WRITINGS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN " 




NEW YORK . : • CINCINNATI • : • CHICAGO 

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Copyright, 1907, by 
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. 



AUTO. OF B. FRANKLIN. 
W. P. I 



PREFACE BY THE GENERAL 
EDITOR 

This series of books aims, first, to give the English 
texts required for entrance to college in a form which 
shall make them clear, interesting, and helpful to those 
who are beginning the study of literature ; and, second, 
to supply the knowledge which the student needs to 
pass the entrance examination. For these two reasons 
it is called The Gateway Series. 

The poems, plays, essays, and stories in these small 
volumes are treated, first of all, as works of literature, 
which were written to be read and enjoyed, not to be 
parsed and scanned and pulled to pieces. A short life 
of the author is given, and a portrait, in order to help 
the student to know the real person who wrote the 
book. The introduction tells what it is about, and 
how it was written, and where the author got the idea, 
and what it means. The notes at the foot of the page 
are simply to give the sense of the hard words so that 
the student can read straight on without turning to a 
dictionary. The other notes, at the end of the book, 
explain difficulties and allusions and fine points. 

5 



6 Preface by the General Editor 

The editors are chosen because of their thorough 
training and special fitness to deal with the books 
committed to them, and because they agree with this 
idea of what a Gateway Series ought to be. They 
express, in each case, their own views of the books 
which they edit. SimpHcity, thoroughness, shortness, 
and clearness, — these, we hope, will be the marks of 
the series. 

HENRY VAN DYKE. 



PREFACE 

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin requires 
little annotation or explanation. It tells in a clear and 
modest manner the story of the rise of a great man 
from obscurity to splendour. It contains lessons of 
wisdom and encouragement, and it should be an inspira- 
tion to every youthful reader. 

One of the greatest captains of industry of recent 
years in England, when a poor boy in Cornwall, pur- 
suing a laborious and apparently hopeless life, hap- 
pened upon an early edition of the Autobiography. He 
read it and took courage. What had been done by a 
patient and fearless lad in America in the eighteenth 
century could surely be accomplished again in England 
in the nineteenth century. Following Franklin's exam- 
ple of industry and frugality, and daily drawing fresh 
courage and hope from the Autobiography^ he rose to 
the highest levels of English life and established one 
of the world's greatest industries. 

I have tried to be sparing and brief in annotation, 
and I have drawn several of the notes to this little 
volume from my larger edition. If the student will 

7 



8 Preface 

come to appreciate the charm and the vigour of the 
simple, homely style, and to understand the secrets of 
success that abide in Franklin's frugal and industrious 
hfe and zeal for the pubHc welfare, all further com- 
ment and analysis of the work will be superfluous and 

impertinent. 

ALBERT H. SMYTH. 



The manuscript of this preface was in our hands at the 
time of Dr. Smyth's unexpected and lamented death. 
May 4, 1907. This book, then, is his last piece of com- 
pleted work ; and, while it adds greatly to the value of 
this series, it reminds us also of the large loss that the 
cause of American education has suffered in the passing 
away of such an accomplished scholar, wise teacher, and 

open-minded man. 

H. V. D. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction ii 

Chronology of Benjamin Franklin .... 34 

Poor Richard's ^Maxims . . . . ' . . -36 
Franklin's Draft Scheme of the Autobiography . 39 

The Autobiography .45 

Notes 275 



INTRODUCTION 

Benjamin Franklin was the first American man 
of letters. Before him, with the exception of Cotton 
Mather's Magnalia, and perhaps the Familiar Letters 
of Mrs. John Adams, scarcely anything worthy of the 
name of literature existed in America. Franklin wrote 
much and wrote well. He lived with the pen in his hand. 
Some of his writings, notably the Autobiography, The 
Way to Wealth, and The Edict of the King of Pi^ussia, 
are among the permanent monuments of our literature. 
Critics have always praised the clearness, power, and 
simplicity of his style. Sydney Smith merrily threat- 
ened to disinherit his daughter if she did not admire 
everything written by Franklin. 

His works and correspondence treat of every subject, 
familiar and unfamiliar in the eighteenth century. He 
wrote upon philosophy, politics, and economics ; and he 
published many satires, and brief essays which he 
called " bagatelles." 

His contemporaries were impressed by his great 
wisdom and great simplicity. Francis Jeffrey said of 
his philosophical writings that they suggested the most 
ingenious and profound explanations as if they were 
the most natural and obvious way of accounting for 
the phenomena. 

II 



12 Franklin's Autobiography 

Franklin had little schooling. His knowledge was 
derived from wide and constant reading. He had 
from early childhood a passion for books, and he could 
not remember the time when he could not read. For 
thirty years he was actively engaged in journalism, and 
he mastered all the technic of that profession. Ac- 
cording to him a good literary style should be " smooth, 
clear, and short." The way in which he became the 
master of such a style he has told in the Autobiography 
(see page 6 1 ) . * 

I. The Autobiography 

Franklin's Autobiog7^aphy is one of the most famous 
books of its class in the world. Its popularity is un- 
failing. Not even the Autobiography of Benvenuto 
Cellini, or the Coiifessions of Rousseau can enter into 
competition with it. It has been reprinted in the 
United States many scores of times, and it has been 
translated into all the languages of Europe. Perhaps 
no famous book has had a more varied and singular his- 
tory. It has appeared five times in France in five dis- 
tinct and different translations, and it has appeared 
four times in English in four versions, each differing 
from the other in almost every line. The history of the 
book is so strange that it may well be recited here. 

Franklin began the writing of the Autobiography 
when he was at Twyford in Hampshire, in 1771, visit- 
ing his dear friend, Jonathan Shipley, the bishop of 
St. Asaph's. He addressed it to his son, William 
Franklin, then governor of New Jersey, and at . first 



Introduction 13 

had probably no thought of publication. Political 
duties and anxieties interfered with the continued prog- 
ress of the work. The Revolution came on, and amid 
the stern necessities of the time the Autobiography was 
neglected and forgotten. When Franklin went abroad 
to represent America at the court of France and to 
seek an alliance with that nation, he left his private 
papers in the care of his family. A large chest which 
contained the greater part of the papers was broken 
open and plundered. His papers were scattered upon 
the floor, trampled under foot, or given to the winds. 
Richard Bache, the son-in-law of Franklin, heard of this 
act of vandalism, hurried out to Trevose, in Bucks 
County, Pennsylvania, where the chest had been stored, 
and gathered up such of the papers as could be found. 

The sheets upon which the Autobiography was 
written, and which contained the story of his life until 
the year 1730, fell into the hands of Abel Jones, an old 
and respected friend of Dr. Franklin. He copied the 
manuscript and sent it to Franklin in Paris^ with an 
urgent plea that he should complete the narration. Other 
friends who became aware that Franklin had begun 
such a work urged him to continue it, saying that it 
would be worth all Plutarch's Lives put together. 

After the Treaty of Peace was signed, and the chief 
anxieties of his life were over, Franklin resumed the 
Autobiography at Passy, his home near Paris, and 
wrote at it during 1784. He returned to America in 
1785. He w^as old, and afflicted with painful maladies. 
Occasionally, when health and strength permitted, he 



14 Franklin's Autobiography 

added to the work, the completion of which was still 
eagerly solicited by his friends in France and England, 
but he left it unfinished when he died. 

Eleven months after his death the publication of the 
work in French was announced in Paris. How the 
publisher obtained the manuscript from w^hich his trans- 
lation was made remains an impenetrable mystery. It 
is known that Franklin sent a copy, in the handwriting 
of his grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, to his old 
friend and neighbour at Passy, M. le Veillard ; but the 
latter, upon the publication of the work, in 1791, wrote 
to a Paris newspaper stating that he had no connexion 
with the translation, and was ignorant of its source. 

In 1793 two English editions appeared : the first was 
published by Robinson, ''the king of booksellers," and 
edited by Dr. Price ; the other, which was far inferior, 
was published in London by J. Parsons. 

Robinson's edition was translated into German ; and 
in 1798 it was translated into French and published 
again in Paris — a French translation of an English 
translation of a French translation of the original ! 

We must now retrace our steps a moment to learn 
the history of Franklin's papers after the great man's 
death. It was his wish that his grandson, William 
Temple Franklin, should be his literary executor and 
should prepare his biography and an edition of his works. 
To him therefore he bequeathed his private papers. 
The collection was enormous, and the task was formi-* 
dable. Young Franklin was not gifted with literary 
ability. He was indolent and timid, and aghast at the 



Introduction 15 

magnitude of the task before him. He culled out what 
he imagined to be the most important of the manu- 
scripts and took them with him to Europe. It was not 
until 181 7, twenty-seven years after Franklin's death,, 
that the long-expected and long-delayed edition of his 
works was ready for publication. 

While it was still in preparation \V. T. Franklin 
requested M. le Veillard's descendants to give back 
the manuscript of the Autobiograpliy which was in 
B. F. Bache's handwriting, and offered in exchange the 
original manuscript written by Franklin. His reason for 
this rather strange proposition probably was that the 
transcript made by B. F. Bache would make clearer and 
better " copy " for the printers. 

W. T. Franklin proceeded to print from the manu- 
script thus acquired. As soon as published it was 
translated into French and printed in Paris. The 
original manuscript continued in the possession of 
the French family at Passy until 1867, when it was 
bought by Mr. John Bigelow, formerly minister to 
France. To his amazement, he found, when he ex- 
amined this treasure, that it was in many respects very 
different from the published editions and that it con- 
tained some leaves never before printed. By means of 
it Mr. Bigelow was able to correct more than twelve 
hundred errors in W. T. Franklin's edition. 

The Life of Franklin 

The chief source of biographical information con- 
cerning Benjamin Franklin is his Autobiography, 



1 6 Franklin's Autobiography 

Unfortunately that work ceases with the year 1757. 
For the thirty-three remaining years of his life, crowded 
with great endeavour, we are dependent for our know- 
ledge upon his correspondence, his journals, and the 
memoirs of the time. He touched life upon so many 
sides, his knowledge was so vast, and his activities 
so comprehensive that it is almost impossible to be 
brief in reviewing the events and circumstances of 
his life. From the early pages of the Autobiography 
we learn the fascinating story of his early struggles, 
and his rise from humble and obscure surroundings. 
He has told with inimitable ease and grace the inci- 
dents of his flight from Boston, fugitive from an angry 
brother, — how he was nearly drowned in New York 
Bay; how he walked from Perth Amboy to Burlington, 
through constant rain ; how he took boat at Burlington 
upon an October afternoon, and landed at the foot of 
Market Street in Philadelphia- upon the following Sun- 
day morning; how he walked the quiet streets of the 
sober city, a ridiculous figure, munching his roll; how he 
found shelter the first night in the strange city at the 
old Crooked Billet in Water Street. The stories that 
chiefly interest the world are those that tell of the prog- 
ress of an heroic character from obscurity to splendour. 
Never was there in that respect a more extraordinary 
story than this of Franklin. The vagrant, adventurous 
lad, a humble soap-boiler's son, who arrived in Phila- 
delphia ragged, travel-stained, awkward, his pockets 
stuffed out with shirts and stockings, and a Dutch 
dollar his whole stock of cash, was destined to 



Introduction 17 

become the most conspicuous and admired figure of two 
continents, to stand before kings, to converse with 
scholars, and to receive every honour that the most 
venerable academies of learning could bestow. 

Franklin said that his father was fond of quoting to 
him the proverb, " Seest thou a man diligent in his 
calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand 
before mean men ; " but, he said, " I never thought that 
I should ever literally stand before kings, which honour 
has since happened, for I have stood before five, and 
even had the honour of sitting down with one, the king 
of Denmark, to dinner." 

He displayed astonishing versatility. He was phi- 
losopher and philanthropist, politician and printer. 
He was the first American to overcome provincial 
boundaries and limitations. As postmaster he trav- 
elled over the continent and became familiar with all 
the colonies. He was the first man of science and 
of letters in America to achieve wide and permanent 
reputation in Europe. He was the only statesman who 
signed all four of the great state papers of America — 
the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alli- 
ance, the Treaty of Peace, and the Constitution. 

Although he had never been to college, and had scarcely 
been to school, he received the honorary degree of 
doctor of laws from St. Andrew.s and Oxford, and the 
honorary master of arts from Harvard, Yale, and Wil- 
liam and Mary. He was elected unanimously a fellow of 
the Royal Society, an honour voluntarily conferred and all 
fees remitted, and from that venerable society he received 
franklin's autobiography — 2 



1 8 Franklin's Autobiography 

the Copley gold medal. In France he was appointed 
one of the eight foreign associates of the Academy of 
Sciences — an honour only once repeated in the his- 
tory of America. He received medals and diplomas 
from learned societies in St. Petersburg and Madrid, 
in Edinburgh and Padua, and in Turin. 

In France he enjoyed unprecedented popularity. 
His style of dress and his manner of life were ad- 
mired and imitated. Men carried their canes and 
their snuff-boxes a la Franklin, Women crowned him 
with laurels. And nearly every aristocratic house in 
Paris showed a portrait of Franklin upon the wall, 
and a Franklin stove in one of the apartments. 

When Voltaire and Franklin met in the hall of the 
French academy a cry arose that they should embrace 
each other, whereupon the crowd of scholars and states- 
men and poets shouted, " Behold Solon and Sophocles 
embrace ! " 

Kant called him the Prometheus of modern times ; 
Mirabeau arose in the. National Assembly when the 
news of Franklin's death reached Paris, to speak of 
him as " the genius that freed America and poured 
a flood of light over Europe." The great Lord Chat- 
ham described him to the English Parliament as " one 
whom all Europe ranks with our Boyles and New^- 
tons, as an honour not to the English nation alone, but 
to human nature." 

The second centenary of his birth, in the year 1906, 
was made the occasion of extraordinary honours and 
almost unprecedented commemorations. 



Introduction 19 

These celebrations began upon his birthday (January 
6, Old Style, January 17, New Style), and continued in 
many parts of America in ever increasing enthusiasm, 
until their stately culmination in the august proceed- 
ings in Paris, where a statue of Franklin was unveiled 
in the street that bears his name, and the governments 
of France and the United States united to do reverent 
homage to the statesman and philosopher who laboured 
so long and so wisely for the welfare of both coun- 
tries. 

He began his business career as a printer. Through- 
out his life he was deeply interested in the art of print- 
ing, and when he wrote his will he began with the words 
*• I, Benjamin Franklin, printer." At twenty-two years 
of age he became partner in a printing business and so 
prospered by industry and frugality that in twenty years 
(1748) he retired with a moderate fortune. He ex- 
tended his business ventures far beyond Philadelphia 
and Pennsylvania. He had partners in printing in. 
Lancaster (Pa.), New York, Newport, Charleston, 
Kingston (Jamaica), and Antigua. 

At twenty-three years of age he published a Modest 
Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Cur- 
rency, a shrewd and successful pamphlet upon a 
fiercely debated question of colonial currency. At 
the same time (1729) he became proprietor of The 
Pennsylvania Gazette, which he made the best and by 
far the most readable newspaper in America. 

With his retirement from business the public laid 
hold of him for its purposes, and instead of the leisure 



20 Franklin's Autobiography 

which he expected to enjoy and to use for philosophical 
speculation, he found his time consumed in business of 
the civil government. The governor put him into the 
commission of the peace ; the corporation of Philadel- 
phia chose him for the common council, and soon 
after as alderman ; and the citizens at large chose him 
a burgess to represent them in the Assembly. The 
General Assembly, which was the representative body of 
the province of Pennsylvania, was his school of politics. 
Here he obtained the political discipline and the 
dexterity in managing men and promoting public 
measures which were to serve him in such good stead 
in later years in London and Paris. 

There was a long and bitter feud between the As- 
sembly and the Proprietors of Pennsylvania, and Frank- 
lin was the chief champion of the Assembly. William 
Penn's vast estate in America comprised about twenty- 
six million acres. Over it all Penn presided as captain- 
general, invested with the power of making war and 
administering justice. Upon his death the property 
descended to his sons John, Thomas, and Richard. The 
eldest son, John, died, leaving his share to Thomas. 
The two surviving brothers, the Proprietaries as they 
were called, engaged for fifteen years in a constant con- 
troversy with the Assembly. The governor was ap- 
pointed by the Proprietaries. The Assembly would 
not vote money unless the property of the Proprietaries 
should be taxed on like terms with other estates. The 
governor, obedient to his instructions, vetoed every 
measure which did not exempt that property from taxa- 



Introduction 21 

tion. It was Franklin's object and effort to secure 
equitable taxation for all lands in the province. 

In 1754 he presented a plan of Union for the colonies 
at a conference in Albany.^ At this period he wrote a 
number of political pamphlets. Among them are 
Plain Truths Letters to Shiidey, Militia Act, Dialogue of 
X, Y. Z., A Nay^rative of the late Massacre in Lancaster 
County, Cool Thoughts, and a Preface to Joseph Gallo- 
way's Speech, 

Franklin had now become a national character. His 
name was spoken with respect everywhere in America. 
He was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General for the 
Colonies in 1753, and held that office until 1774. Con- 
cerning his duties Franklin wrote after his dismissal 
from office : " The American office had hitherto never 
paid anything to that of Britain. We were to have six 
hundred pounds a year between us,^ if we could make 
that sum out of the profits of the office. To do this a 
variety of improvements was necessary ; some of these 
were inevitably at first expensive ; so that in the first 
four years the office became about nine hundred pounds 
in debt to us. But it soon after began to repay us ; 
and before I was displaced by a freak of the ministers, 
of which I shall speak hereafter, we had brought it to 
yield three times as much clear revenue to the crown as 

^The British Lords of Trade ordered a congress to assemble 
at Albany for a conference with the chiefs of the Six Nations. 
The several colonies were represented by commissioners who met 
June 19, 1754. Franklin represented Pennsylvania. 

'^ Franklin and William Hunter were appointed jointly. 



22 Franklin's Autobiography 

the post-office of Ireland. Since that imprudent trans- 
action they have received from it — not one farth- 
ing." 

The sphere of Franklin's acquaintance and influence 
was extended when, in 1757, he was sent to England as 
the representative of Pennsylvania to explain the 
grievance of the Assembly against the Penn Proprie- 
taries and to seek some redress through the action of 
ParHament. He remained five years in England, re- 
turned to America in 1762, and was again sent forth in 
1764 to secure a change of the government of Penn- 
sylvania from a proprietary to a royal province. Soon 
after his arrival in England the Stamp Act was passed, 
and the small antagonisms of a single colony were 
swallowed in the larger peril and grievance that con- 
cerned the whole country. During the years of agita- 
tion over the Stamp Act and the other colonial acts of an 
unwise administration, Franklin was employed as the 
agent, not only of Pennsylvania, but of Georgia, New 
Jersey, and Massachusetts, representing their commer- 
cial affairs and seeking the repeal of the objectionable 
measures passed by Parliament. 

He was summoned before the bar of the House of 
Commons (1766) to give testimony concerning the con- 
dition of affairs in America. The examination is 
historic. His answers to the questions put to him were 
so bold, clear, and convincing that they educated Eng- 
lishmen to a new and juster notion of their kinsmen in 
America, and kindled courage and patriotism in the 
hearts of the Americans. Edmund Burke compared 



Introduction 23 

the scene in the House of Commons to that of a school- 
master being examined by his pupils. 

The examination was upon the 13th of February. 
Upon the 21st a Repealing Bill was introduced into Par- 
liament which received the royal assent on the 8th of 
March. 

The events that followed were fast hurrying the 
nation on to war and perhaps to ruin. Other irritating 
measures were discussed by Parliament. Charles Town- 
shend, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced a reck- 
less budget, and proceeded with vigour and dispatch to 
provide for the taxation of America by the English Parlia- 
ment. The Boston Massacre occurred. America was 
aflame with indignation and revolt. Franklin had been a 
loyal and ardent imperialist. He loved England, and 
had many dear and valued friends in that country. He 
had contemplated removing his family thither, thinking to 
find life there more congenial than amid the never ending 
quarrels of Pennsylvania. He was a thorough patriot 
and admired and loved the constitution and institutions 
of Great Britain. His ideal was a firmly confederated 
union of states enjoying Hberty and autonomy. He 
believed that a citizen of Boston or Philadelphia should 
enjoy precisely the same rights and privileges as a citi- 
zen of Leeds or Sheffield. The British Empire he com- 
pared to a handsome China bowl — it were a great pity 
to break it ; and he was convinced that the dismember- 
ment of the empire would mean the ruin of all its parts. 
When it was urged that in time the colonies by their 
more rapid growth would become the dominant half, 



24 Franklin's Autobiography 

he answered, ''Which is best, to have a total separation 
or a change in the seat of government? " Indeed, he 
was publicly accused by Bishop Tucker of a desire to 
transfer the government of England to America. 

He found himself entirely in accord with Burke and 
Chatham with regard to the unity and integrity of the em- 
pire, and with regard to the unjust taxation of America 
he said : '' I can only judge of others by myself. I have 
some little property in America. I will freely spend 
nineteen shillings in the pound to defend the right of 
giving or refusing the other shilKng ; and, after all, if 
I cannot defend that right, I can retire cheerfully with 
my little family into the boundless woods of. Amer- 
ica, which are sure to afford freedom and subsistence to 
any man who can bait a hook or pull a trigger." 

It was the famous affair of the Hutchinson Letters 
which made it impossible for him to preserve this medi- 
atorial position. Certain letters wa'itten by Thomas 
Hutchinson, royal governor of Massachusetts, to friends 
in England, in which he recommended the sending of 
troops and men of war, and advising that in the colo- 
nies ''there must be an abridgment of what are called 
English liberties," fell into the hands of Franklin. How 
Franklin became possessed of the letters remains still a 
mystery. The source was undivulged by him. He 
transmitted them to America. Massachusetts Bay peti- 
tioned the government to remove from office the writer 
of the letters. In the fierce quarrel that ensued one 
man was wounded in a duel, and the solicitor-general, 
Alexander Wedderburn, afterwards the Earl of Rosslyn, 



Introduction 25 

assailed Franklin before the privy council with furious 
invective. It was a scene, as Lecky has said, well suited 
to the brush of an historical painter. For more than 
an hour Franklin stood, tranquilly, silently, before his 
malignant foe, his coolness and apathy in striking con- 
trast with the violence and clamour of the Scotch de- 
claimer, while grave men clapped their hands in 
boundless, amused delight at the baiting of the Ameri- 
can. " He has forfeited," cried Wedderburn, '• all the 
respect of societies and of men. Men will watch him 
with a jealous eye ; they will hide their papers from 
him and lock up their escritoires. He will henceforth 
esteem it a libel to be called a man of letters, a man of 
three letters — homo triinii literarumy^ However we 
may poise the cause in justice's equal scales, it 
is chiefly interesting to us as the critical event which 
converted Franklin into a stubborn opponent of the 
English government, and changed the American senti- 
ment toward him into enthusiasm and affection. It 
was the only cherished hatred of his life, and how deep 
the poisoned shaft had sunk into his soul we may infer 
from the well-authenticated story that four years later^ 
when the treaty of alliance with France was signed, 
Franklin dressed himself for that day's historic achieve- 
ment in the same Manchester cloak of velvet which he 
last wore when he stood under the pitiless storm of 
Wedderburn 's vituperation. 

Soon after this unhappy occurrence Franklin returned 
to America. He arrived in Philadelphia May 5, 1775, 

1 That is, " Fur," a thief. 



26 Franklin's Autobiography 

immediately after the events at Concord and Lexington. 
He wrote to his friend WiUiam Strahan, the king's 
printer, — 

^' You are a member of ParHament, and one of that 
majority which has doomed my country to destruction. 
You have begun to burn our towns and murder our 
people. Look upon your hands : they are stained with 
the blood of your relations ! You and I were long 
friends : you are now my enemy, and I am 

'' Yours, 

"B. Franklin." 

Franklin was elected a delegate to the Provincial 
Congress. He served upon the most important com- 
mittees. He was postmaster, and arranged a system of 
posts and expresses for the swift conveyance of dis- 
patches. He worked hard upon the Committee of 
Safety, and was elected a member of the Assembly of 
Pennsylvania. With Thomas Lynch of South Caro- 
lina and Benjamin Harrison of Virginia he went to 
Cambridge to confer with General Washington con- 
cerning the levying, maintaining, and governing the 
Continental Army. In the spring of 1776 he journeyed 
to Montreal to confer with General Arnold and to try to 
bring Canada into the union of colonies. He returned 
from this unsuccessful mission in time to serve upon 
the Committee of Five elected to draft the Declaration 
of Independence. 

In the same month he was sent to confer with Lord 
Howe, who had arrived with the English fleet off Sandy 
Hook on the 12th of July. It was the last attempt 



Introduction 27 

to bring about peace. Lord Howe expressed his sin- 
cere desire to accommodate the differences between 
the mother country and her colonies. He said that 
his affection for America was such that if America 
should fall he should feel and lament it like the loss of 
a brother. Franklin replied, " My lord, we will use 
our utmost endeavours to save your lordship that morti- 
fication." The conference ended with Franklin's words : 
" Forces have been sent out, and towns have been 
burnt. We cannot now expect happiness under the 
domination of Great Britain. All former attachments 
are obliterated. America cannot return to the domi- 
nation of Great Britain, and I imagine that Great Britain 
means to rest it upon force." 

On the 26th of September, 1776, Franklin was 
elected by Congress one of three commissioners to 
France. Turning to Dr. Rush, who sat next him? 
Franklin said, when the result of the balloting was an- 
nounced : " I am old and good for nothing ; but as the 
storekeepers say of their remnants of cloth, ' I am but 
a fag end and you may have me for what you please.' " 
He sailed on the Reprisal^ and arrived in France after 
a stormy passage, beaten for thirty days by November 
gales. They brought in with them to Nantes two 
prizes, — a brigantine laden with tar, turpentine, and 
claret, and another with a cargo of cognac and flaxseed. 
He reached Paris on the 22d of December, and went 
at once to the ancient Hotel d'Hambourg, where 
Silas Deane lodged. Later, to escape the curious 
crowds that followed him in the city, he removed to 



28 Franklin^s Autobiography 

Passy, where, in the Hotel Valentinois, a dependance of 
the luxurious home of his friend, Le Ray de Chaumont, 
he found a quiet retreat where it was possible for him to 
command time for the dispatch of public business and 
of his incredibly voluminous correspondence with all 
the world. 

Everywhere he was received with cordiality, respect, 
and affection almost without parallel in history. The 
enthusiasm for him became almost idolatry. He bore 
it all with composure ; his serenity was undisturbed by 
flattery, his confidence undaunted by disaster. Now 
began nine years of incredible toil, of heart-breaking 
disappointments, of worries innumerable, through all 
which Franklin moved patiently, tranquilly, delib- 
erately, emerging triumphantly at last to throw him- 
self into the arms of the Due de la Rochefoucauld, 
after signing the treaty of peace, exclaiming : " My 
friend, could I have hoped, at my age, to enjoy such a 
happiness ! " 

He accomplished the great work almost alone. His 
associates hindered more than they helped his plans. 
Ralph Izard was sent to Tuscany, the haughty and in- 
solent Arthur Lee to Spain, John Adams to Holland, 
Dana to Russia ; but they never really reached or influ- 
enced the courts to which they were accredited, and 
they seldom received any favourable replies to their pe- 
titions. Franklin borrowed the money and obtained the 
gifts that supplied the American army with clothes and 
ammunition. He. met the drafts that were constantly 
being drawn upon him by the Congress and by the rep- 



Introduction 29 

resentatives of the United States in Europe. He ex- 
changed prisoners, settled the jealous quarrels of rival 
captains in the navy, apportioned prize money, and per- 
formed all the functions of plenipotentiary, consul, 
banker, and head of the admiralty. 

He brought about the treaty of alliance with France 
which gave political importance to America and con- 
verted a rebellion into a revolution. The independence 
of America was won by the aid of France, and Frank- 
lin alone obtained or could obtain that aid. He 
turned the universal admiration with which he was 
greeted into a perpetual benefit to his country. He 
often appealed to the king and his minister of foreign 
affairs — De Vergennes — to save the credit of America 
by fresh grants of money, and he never appealed in vain. 
John Jay borrowed in Spain (1781-82^ S174.017; John 
Adams, with the guarantee of Franklin. borro\ved in 
Holland Si. 304, 000; Franklin borrowed in France 
36,352.500, and obtained as a free gift from the king 
two million dollars more. 

After the surrender of Cornwallis the English govern- 
ment made overtures of peace. It was the object of 
their diplomacy to divide America and France. The 
sagacity, forbearance, and patience of Franklin brought 
negotiations to a fortunate conclusion, in which the 
Americans obtained everything for which they had 
contended. 

Congress accepted Franklin's resignation in 1785 and 
permitted him to return home, He was old and feeble, 
and so tortured with gout that any kind of locomotion 



30 Franklin's Autobiography 

was distressing to him. It was not possible for him to 
go to Versailles for an audience of leave. He wrote to 
the Count de Vergennes : " May I beg the favour of 
you, sir, to express respectfully for me to his Majesty, 
the deep sense I have of all the inestimable benefits his 
goodness has conferred on my country ; a sentiment 
that it will be the business of the little remainder of 
life now left me, to impress equally on the minds of all 
my countrymen. My sincere prayers are, that God may 
shower down his blessings on the king, the queen, their 
children, and all the royal family to the latest genera- 
tions ! " 

He was carried from Paris to the seashore in one of 
the queen's litters borne by Spanish mules. When he 
arrived in Philadelphia he was in his eightieth year. 
He had worked unceasingly for the public weal. He 
craved rest and tranquillity. But immediately upon his 
return he was elected President of Pennsylvania. 
*' They have eaten my flesh," said he, '^ and seem resolved 
now to pick my bones." In May, 1787, he was made a 
member of the Pennsylvania delegation to the conven- 
tion which was to frame a new constitution. When 
their labours were over, he urged the members, who 
were dissatisfied with the constitution to sacrifice their 
opinions for the common good, and to send the docu- 
ment forth stamped with universal approval. The story 
is told by Madison that while " the last members were 
signing. Dr. Franklin looked toward the president's 
chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be 
painted, observing to a few members near him, that 



Introduction 31 

painters had found it difficult to distinguish, in their art, 
a rising from a setting sun. 'I have,' said he, ' often 
and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissi- 
tudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at 
that behind the president, without being able to tell 
whether it was rising or setting ; but now, at length, I 
have the happiness to know, that it is a rising and not a 
setting sun.' " 

Franklin died on the 17th of April, 1790. The 
House of Representatives decreed that the members 
should wear mourning for one month. The National 
Assembly of France wore mourning for three days. 
The Commune of Paris, the Revolutionary Clubs, and 
the Academy of Sciences listened to eulogies of the great 
man who had been the first ambassador from America 
to France, the first of the nations of the world to 
receive such a representative. 

Emerson compared great men to Labrador spar, 
W'hich is dull and lustreless as it is turned in the hand 
until a particular angle is struck, when it shows brill- 
iant hues. The comparison does not apply to Frank- 
hn. He displayed astonishingly various capacity. He 
was interested in all the sciences; and men of learning, 
the foremost in their professions, resorted to him in the 
attitude of pupils. He established the science of 
meteorology and was the first to realize that our north- 
easterly storms originate in the southwest. He held 
views upon the nature of light and heat that are en- 
tirely consistent with those held by Cavendish and 
Clerk Maxwell. He wrote about lead poisoning and 



32 Franklin's Autobiography 

contagious colds so successfully that he was elected to 
membership in the royal societies of medicine in Lon- 
don and Paris. In 1746 Peter Collinson sent from 
England a Leyden vial as a present to the library that 
Franklin had established in Philadelphia. Franklin 
experimented with it, and in a twelvemonth, with the 
simplest apparatus ever employed by any scientist, he 
had mastered the theory of electrical science, and es- 
tablished his single fluid theory of electricity. The 
world of science at this moment, in the light of recent 
investigations, is returning to the amazing generaliza- 
tion made by Franklin one hundred and fifty years 
ago. He took a step farther, and demonstrated the 
identity of lightning and electricity. At once he be- 
came the centre of universal interest and admiration. 
Louis XV., through Abbe Mazeas, returned his thanks 
and compliments to Dr. Franklin of Pennsylvania. 
'' He could make an experiment," said Lord Brougham, 
" with less apparatus and conduct his experimental 
inquiry to a discovery with more ordinary materials 
than any other philosopher we ever saw. With an 
old key, a silk thread, some sealing wax, and a sheet of 
paper, he discovered the identity of lightning and 
electricity." 

He invented the Franklin stove and the so-called 
Ferguson clock. He was the first to give a clear 
account of marsh gas, and the first to demonstrate 
that oil would tranquillize turbulent waters. He cor- 
responded with Herschel and Maskelyne upon astron- 
omy ; with Buff on and Bartram upon botany ; with Court 



Introduction 23 

de Gobelin upon the native languages of America ; with 
Sir John Pringle and Vicq-d'Azyr upon medicine ; with 
Dupont de Nemours and Morellet upon economics. 
There was no hmit to his interests or his activities. 

A frank acceptance of the material world, and a 
desire to do some practical good in it — these things 
are the life of Franklin. He founded benevolent 
and useful institutions, — hospitals, libraries, schools, 
and learned societies, — invented stoves and lightning 
rods and bifocal glasses, hghted and paved streets, 
and protected towns from fire. 



franklin's autobiography- 



CHRONOLOGY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

Date 

1706. Born in Boston, January 17, the tenth child of Josiah 
and Abiah (Folger) Franklin. 

1 714. Sent to school. 

1 71 6. Taken from school to assist his father in his tallow- 
chandler's shop. 

1718. Apprenticed to his brother in a printing-office. 

1 72 1. Contributed " Do Good Papers " to the New England 
Courant. 

1723. Flight to Philadelphia. 

1724. Went to Londonc 

1725. Worked as a printer in London. 

1726. Returned to Philadelphia and found employment in a 

dry-goods business. 

1727. Organized the Junto. 

1729. Published The Pennsylvania Gazette. 

1730. Took to wife Deborah Reed, September i. 

1 73 1. Founded the Philadelphia Library^ the first circulating 

library in America. 

1732. Began the publication of Poor RicharcVs Abnanac. 

1733. Began to study French, Italian, and Spanish. 

1736. Entered public life as clerk of the Assembly of Penn- 

sylvania. 

1737. Postmaster of Philadelphia. Organized the first fire 

department in America. 
1742. Invented the Franklin stove. 

1744. Organized ''The American Philosophical Society." 

34 



Introduction 35 

1749. Founded the Academy which developed into the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. 

1752. Proved the identity of lightning and electricity. 

1753. Appointed Deputy Postmaster-General of the Colonies. 

Harvard College conferred on him the degree of B. A. 

1754. Commissioner from Pennsylvania at the Congress in 

Albany, and submitted a plan for a union of all the 
colonies under one government. 

1755. Procured wagons and supplies for Braddock's expedi- 

tion against the French at Fort Duquesne (Pitts- 
burg). Defended Pennsylvania against the In- 
dians. 

Sent to London as the agent of Pennsylvania. 

Received the degree of LL.D. from the Universities of 
Oxford and of St. Andrews. 

1763. Travelled sixteen hundred miles extending and regulat- 

ing postal system. 

1764. Again sent to London as colonial agent for Penn- 

sylvania. 
1766. Gave important testimony on Stamp Act before House 

of Commons. 
1770. Appointed agent for Massachusetts in England. 

1775. Received the Copley Gold Medal. Returned from 

eleven years' stay in England to participate in the 
decisive steps toward American independence. 

1776. Elected to the Committee of Five to frame a Declara- 

tion of Independence. Appointed commissioner to 

secure the support of France. 
1778. Secured a treaty of alliance with France; formally 

received at the French court as minister of the United 

States. 
1 78 1. Appointed member of a commission to negotiate a 

treaty of peace. 



^6 Franklin's Autobiography 

1782. Signed preliminary articles of peace at Paris, Novem- 

ber 30. 

1783. Signed definite articles of peace at Paris, September 3. 

1785. Returns to his home in Philadelphia. Elected Presi- 

dent of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pre- 
sented library to town of Franklin. 

1786. Re-elected. 

1787. Again Re-elected. Helped to frame the Constitution 

of the United States. 
1790. Died at his home in Philadelphia. Buried in Christ 
Church graveyard in that city. 

POOR RICHARD'S MAXIMS 

Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears, while the 
used key is always bright. 

The sleeping fox catches no poultry. 

Drive thy business ; let not thy business drive thee. 

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, 
and wise. 

There are no gains without pains. 

He that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honour. 

Diligence is the mother of good luck. 

One to-day is worth two to-morrows. 

Handle your tools without mittens. Remember, the cat in 
gloves catches no mice. 

Constant dropping wears away stones. 

Little strokes fell great oaks. 

Trouble springs from idleness. 

Three removes are as bad as a fire. 

Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee. 

Many a little makes a mickle ; a small leak will sink a great 
ship. 



Introduction 37 

Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell 
thy necessaries. 

Silks and satins, scarlet and velvet, put out the kitchen fire. 

Always taking out of the rneal tub and never putting in soon 
comes to the bottom. 

It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright. 

Lazy folks take the most pains. 

God gives all things to industry. 

Plough deep while sluggards sleep and you will have corn 
to sell and to keep. 

If you would have your business done, go ; if not, send. 



FRANKLIN'S DRAFT SCHEME OF 
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

\_Copie d^iin Projet trcs Cnrienx de Benjamin Frankli7i — 
i^^^ Esquisse de sesMhnoires. Les additions a Vencre 
rouge sont de la main de Franklin,~\ ^ 

^Iy writing. Mrs. Dogood's letters. Differences arise 
between my Brother and me (his temper and mine) ; their 5 
cause in general. His Newspaper. The Prosecution he 
suffered. My Examination. Vote of Assembly. His 
manner of eYading it. Whereby I became free. ]\Iy 
attempt to get employ with other Printers. He prevents 
me. Our frequent pleadings before our Father. The lo 
final Breach. My Inducements to quit Boston. Manner 
of coming to a Resolution. My leaving him and going to 
New York (return to eating flesh\; thence to Penn- 
sylvania. The journey, and its events on the Bay, at 
Amboy. The road. IMeet with Dr. Brown. His char- 15 
acter. His great work. At Burlington. The Good 
Woman. On the River. My Arrival at Philadelphia. 
First ]\Ieal and first Sleep. ]\Ioney left. Employment. 
Lodging. First acquaintance with my afterward Wife. 
With J. Ralph. With Keimer. Their characters. 20 

^ This memorandum, probably in the handwriting of M. le 
Veillard, immediately precedes the Outline in the ]MS. — Bigelow. 

39 



40 Franklin's Autobiography 

Osborne. Watson. The Governor takes notice of me. 
The occasion and manner. His character. Offers 
to set me up. My return to Boston. Voyage and 
accidents. Reception. My Father dislikes the proposal. 
5 1 return to New York and Philadelphia. Governor 
Burnet. J. Collins. The Money for Vernon. The 
Governor's Deceit. Collins not finding employment 
goes to Barbados much in my Debt. Ralph and I go to 
England. Disappointment of Governor's Letters. Colo- 

lonel French his Friend. Cornwallis's Letters. Cabin. 
Denham. Hamilton. Arrival in England. Get em- 
ployment. Ralph not. He is an expense to me. Ad- 
ventures in England. Write a Pamphlet and print loo. 
Schemes. Lyons. Dr. Pemberton. My diligence, and 

15 yet poor through Ralph. My Landlady. Her character. 
W^ygate. Wilkes. Gibber. Plays. Books I borrowed. 
Preachers I heard. Redmayne. At Watts's. Temper- 
ance. Ghost. Conduct and Influence among the Men. 
Persuaded by Mr. Denham to return with him to Phila- 

20 delphia and be his clerk. Our voyage and arrival. My 
resolutions in Writing. My Sickness. His Death. 
Found D. R. married. Go to work again with Keimer. 
Terms. His ill-usage of me. My Resentment. Saying 
of Decow. My Friends at BurHngton. Agreement with 

25 H. Meredith to set up in Partnership. Do so. Success 
with the Assembly. Hamilton's Friendship. Sewell's 
History. Gazette. Paper money. Webb. Writing 
Busy Body. Breintnal. Godfrey. His character. 
Suit against us. Offer of my Friends, Coleman and 

30 Grace. Continue the Business, and M. goes to tarolina. 



Franklin's Autobiography 41 

Pamphlet on Paper Money. Gazette from Keimer. 
Junto credit ; its plan. Marry. Library erected. Manner 
of conducting the project. Its plan and utiHty. Chil- 
dren. Almanac. The use I made of it. Great industry. 
Constant study. Father's Remark and Advice upon DiU- 5 
gence. Carolina Partnership. Learn French and German. 
Journey to Boston after ten years. Affection of my 
Brother. His Death, and leaving me his Son. Art of 
Virtue. Occasion. City Watch amended. Post-office, 
Spotswood. Bradford's Behaviour. Clerk of Assembly. 10 
Lose one of my Sons. Project of subordinate Juntos. 
Write occasionally in the papers. Success in Business. 
Fire companies. Engines. Go again to Boston in 1743. 
See Dr. Spence. Whiteheld. My connection with him. 
His generosity to me. My returns. Church Differences. 15 
My part in them. Propose a College. Not then prose- 
cuted. Propose and establish a Philosophical Society. 
War. Electricity. My first knowledge of it. Partner- 
ship with D. Hall, etc. Dispute in Assembly upon 
Defence. Project for it. Plain Truth. Its success. 20 
Ten thousand Men raised and disciplined. Lotteries. 
Battery built. New Castle. My influence in the Council. 
Colours, Devices, and Mottoes. Ladies' MiUtary Watch. 
Quakers chosen of the Common Council. Put in the 
commission of the peace. Logan fond of me. His 25 
Library. Appointed Postmaster-General. Chosen 
Assemblyman. Commissioner to treat with Indians at 
Carlisle and at Easton. Project and establish Academy. 
Pamphlet on it. Journey to Boston. At Albany. Plan 
of union of the colonies. Copy of it. Remarks upon it. 30 



42 Franklin's Autobiography 

It fails, and how. Journey to Boston in 1754. Disputes 
about it in our Assembly. My part in them. New 
Governor. Disputes with him. His character and 
sayings to me. Chosen Alderman. Project of Hospital. 
5 My share in it. Its success. Boxes. Made a Com- 
missioner of the Treasury. My commission to defend the 
frontier counties. Raise Men and build Forts. Mihtia 
Law of my drawing. Made Colonel. Parade of my 
Officers. Offence to Proprietor. Assistance to Boston 

10 Ambassadors. Journey with Shirley, etc. Meet with 
Braddock. Assistance to him. To the Officers of his 
Army. Furnish him with Forage. His concessions to 
me and character of me. Success of my Electrical 
Experiments. Medal sent me. Present Royal Society, 

15 and Speech of President. Denny's Arrival and Courtship 
to me. His character. My service to the Army in the 
affair of Quarters. Disputes about the Proprietor's Taxes 
continued. Project for paving the City. I am sent to 
England. Negotiation there. Canada delenda est. My 

20 Pamphlet. Its reception and effect. Projects drawn 
from me concerning the Conquest. Acquaintance made 
and their services to me — Mrs. S. M. Small, Sir John P., 
Mr. Wood, Sargent, Strahan, and others. Their characters. 
Doctorate from Edinburgh, St. Andrew's. Doctorate 

25 from Oxford. Journey to Scotland. Lord Leicester. 
Mr. Prat. De Grey. Jackson. State of Affairs in 
England. Delays. Eventful Journey into Holland and 
Flanders. Agency from Maryland. Son's appointment. 
My Return. Allowance and thanks. Journey to Boston. 

30 John Penn, Governor. My conduct toward him. The 



Franklin's Autobiography 43 

Paxton Murders. My Pamphlet. Rioters march to 
Philadelphia. Governor retires to my House. My 
conduct. Sent out to the Insurgents. Turn them back. 
Little thanks. Disputes revived. Resolutions against 
continuing under Proprietary Government. Another 5 
Pamphlet. Cool thoughts. Sent again to England with 
Petition. Negotiation there. Lord H. His character. 
Agencies from New Jersey, Georgia, INIassachusetts. 
Journey into Germany, 1766. Civilities received there. 
Gottingen Observations. Ditto into France in 1767.10 
Ditto in 1769. Entertainment there at the Academy. 
Introduced to the King and the Mesdames, Mad. Victoria 
and Mrs. Lamagnon. Due de Chaulnes, M. Beaumont, 
Le Roy, D'Alibard, Nollet. See Journals. Holland. 
Reprint my papers and add many. Books presented to 15 
me from many authors. iMy Book translated into French. 
Lightning Kite. Various Discoveries. ]\Iy manner of 
prosecuting that Study. King of Denmark invites me to 
dinner. Recollect my Father's Proverb. Stamp Act. 
My opposition to it. Recommendation of J. Hughes. 20 
Amendment of it. Examination in Parliament. Repu- 
tation it gave me. Caressed by Ministry. Charles 
Townsend's Act. Opposition to it. Stoves and chimney- 
plates. Armonica. Acquaintance with Ambassadors. 
Russian Intimation. Writing in newspapers. Glasses 25 
from Germany. Grant of Land in Nova Scotia. Sick- 
nesses. Letters to America returned hither. The con- 
sequences. Insurance Office. ]\Iy character. Costs me 
nothing to be civil to inferiors ; a good deal to be sub- 
missive to superiors, etc., etc. Farce of Perpetual Motion. 30 



44 Franklin's Autobiography 

Writing for Jersey Assembly.-^ Hutchinson's Letters. 
Temple. Suit in Chancery. Abuse before the Privy 
Council. Lord Hillsborough's character and conduct. 
Lord Dartmouth. Negotiation to prevent the War. 
5 Return to America. Bishop of St. Asaph. Congress. 
Assembly. Committee of Safety. Chevaux-de-frise. 
Sent to Boston, to the Camp. To Canada, to Lord 
Howe. To France. Treaty, etc. 

1 To this point the p7'ojet is in a strange and clerkly hand. The 
remainder is in the handwriting of Franklin. — B. 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

TwYFORD, at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, ^1*1^- 

Dear Son : I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any 
little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the 
inquiries I made among the remains of my relations 5 
when you were with me in England, and the journey I 
undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally 
agreeable to ^ you to know the circumstances of my Hfe, 
many of which you are yet unacquainted with, and 
expecting the enjoyment of a week's uninterrupted lo 
leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to 
write them for you. To which I have besides some 
other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty 
and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state 
of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, 15 
and having gone so far through life wath a considerable 
share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, 
which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my 
posterity may like to know, as they may find some of 
them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to 20 
be imitated. 

That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me 
sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I 

1 After the words " agreeable to " the words " some of " were 
interlined and afterward effaced. — Bigelow. 

45 



46 Franklin's Autobiography 

should have no objection to a repetition of the same life 
from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors 
have in a second edition to correct some faults of the 
first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change 
5 some sinister accidents and events of it for others more 
favourable. But though this were denied, I should still 
accept the offer. Since such a repetition is not to be 
expected, the next thing most like living one's life over 
again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make 

10 that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down 
in writing. 

Hereby, too, I shall indulge the incHnation so natural 
in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own 
past actions ; and I shall indulge it without being tire- 

15 some to others, who, through respect to age, might con- 
ceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since this 
may be read or not as any one pleases. And, lastly (I 
may as well confess it, since my denial of it will be 
believed by nobody), perhaps I shall a good deal gratify 

20 my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce ever heard or saw the 
introductory words, '^Without vanity I may say'^ etc., 
but some vain thing immediately followed. Most people 
dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it 
themselves ; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet 

25 with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of 
good to the possessor, and to others that are within his 
sphere of action ; and therefore, in many cases, it would 
not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for 
his vanity among the other comforts of hfe. 

30 And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all 



Franklin's Autobiography 47 

humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned hap- 
piness of my past hfe to His kind providence, which led 
me to the means I used and gave them success. My 
belief of this induces me to hope, though I must not/;r- 
suvie, that the same goodness will still be exercised 5 
toward me, in continuing that happiness, or enabling me 
to bear a fatal reverse, which I may experience as others 
have done ; the complexion of my future fortune being 
known to Him only in whose power it is to bless to us 
even our afflictions. 10 

The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind 
of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) once put into 
my hands, furnished me wath several particulars relating 
to our ancestors. From these notes I learned that the 
family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in North- 15 
ampton shire, for three hundred years, and how much 
longer he knew not (perhaps from the time when the 
name of Frankhn, that before w^as the name of an order 
of people, w^as assumed by them as a surname when others 
took surnames all over the kingdom), on a freehold of 20 
about thirty acres, aided by the smith's business, which 
had continued in the family till his time, the eldest son 
being always bred to that business ; a custom which he 
and my father followed as to their eldest sons. When I 
searched the registers at Ecton, I found an account of 25 
their births, marriages and burials from the year 1555 
only, there being no registers kept in that parish at any 
time preceding. By that register I perceived that I was 
the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations 
back. My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived 30 



48 Franklin's Autobiography 

at Ecton till he grew too old to follow business longer, 
when he went to live with his son John, a dyer at Ban- 
bury, in Oxfordshire, with whom my father served an 
apprenticeship. There my grandfather died and lies 
5 buried. We saw his gravestone in 1758. His eldest son 
Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it with the 
land to his only child, a daughter, who, with her husband, 
one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted, now 
lord of the manor there. My grandfather had four sons 

10 that grew up, viz. : Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah. 
I will give you what account I can of them, at this dis- 
tance from my papers, and if these are not lost in my 
absence, you will among them find many more par- 
ticulars. 

15 Thomas was bred a smith under his father ; but, being 
ingenious, and encouraged in learning (as all my brothers 
were) by an Esquire Palmer, then the principal gentle- 
man in that parish, he qualified himself for the business 
of scrivener ; became a considerable man in the county ; 

20 was a chief mover of all public-spirited undertakings for 
the county or town of Northampton, and his own village, 
of which many instances were related of him; and much 
taken notice of and patronized by the then Lord Halifax. 
He died in 1702, January 6, old style, just four years to 

25 a day before I was born. The account we received of 
his life and character from some old people at Ecton, I 
remember, struck you as something extraordinary, from 
its similarity to what you knew of mine. ^^ Had he died 
on the same day," you said^ "one might have supposed 

30 a transmigration." 



Franklin's Autobiography 49 

John was bred a dyer, I believe of woollens. Benjamin 
was bred a silk dyer, serving an apprenticeship at Lon- 
don. He was an ingenious man. I remember him well, 
for when I was a boy he came over to my father in Bos- 
ton, and lived in the house with us some years. He lived 5 
to a great age. His grandson, Samuel Franklin, now 
lives in Boston. He left behind him two quarto volumes, 
MS., of his own poetry, consisting of httle occasional 
pieces addressed to his friends and relations, of which 
the following, sent to me, is a specimen. He had formed 10 
a short-hand of his own, which he taught me, but, never 
practising it, I have now forgot it. I was named after 
this uncle, there being a particular affection between him 
and my father. He was very pious, a great attender of 
sermons of the best preachers, which he took down in his 15 
short-hand, and had with him many volumes of them. 
He was also much of a politician ; too much, perhaps, for 
his station. There fell lately into my hands, in London, 
a collection he had made of all the principal pamphlets 
relating to pubhc affairs, from 1641 to 171 7 ; many of 20 
the volumes are \vanting as appears by the numbering, 
but there still remain eight volumes in foho, and twenty- 
four in quarto and in octavo. A dealer in old books met 
with them, and knowing me by my sometimes buying of 
him, he brought them to me. It seems my uncle must 25 
have left them here when he went to America, which 
was above fifty years since. There are many of his notes 
in the margins. 

This obscure family of ours was early in the Refor- 
mation, and continued Protestants through the reign of 30 
franklin's autobiography — 4 



50 Franklin's Autobiography 

Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in danger of 
trouble on account of their zeal against popery. They 
had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, 
it was fastened open with tapes under and within the cover 
5 of a joint-stool. When my great-great-grandfather read 
it to his family, he turned up the joint-stool upon his 
knees, turning over the leaves then under the tapes. 
One of the children stood at the door to give notice 
if he saw the apparitor coming, who was an officer 

loof the spiritual court. In that case the stool was 
turned down again upon its feet, when the Bible re- 
mained concealed under it as before. This anecdote I 
had from my uncle Benjamin. The family continued all 
of the Church of England till about the end of Charles 

15 the Second's reign, when some of the ministers that had 
been outed for non- conformity holding conventicles in 
Northamptonshire, Benjamin and Josiah adhered to them, 
and so continued all their lives : the rest of the family 
remained with the Episcopal Church. 

20 Josiah, my father, married young, and carried his wife 
with three children into New England, about 1682. The 
conventicles having been forbidden by law, and fre- 
quently disturbed, induced some considerable men of 
his acquaintance to remove to that country, and he was 

25 prevailed with to accompany them thither, where they 
expected to enjoy their mode of rehgion with free- 
dom. By the same wife he had four children more born 
there, and by a second wife ten more, in all seventeen ; 
of which I remember thirteen sitting at one time at his 

30 table, who all grew up to be men and women, and mar- 



i 



Franklin's Autobiography 51 

ried ; I was the youngest son, and the youngest child but 
two, and was born in Boston, New England. j\Iy mother, 
the second wife, was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter 
Folger, one of the first settlers of New England, of whom 
honourable mention is made by Cotton Mather, in his 5 
church history of that country, entitled A fag?i a Im Christi 
Americana^ as ^^ a godly, learned Englishman,'' if I re- 
member the words rightly. I have heard that he wrote 
sundry small occasional pieces, but only one of them was 
printed, which I saw now many years since. It was 10 
written in 1675, in the home-spun verse of that time and 
people, and addressed to those then concerned in the 
government there. It was in favour of Hberty of con- 
science, and in behalf of the Baptists, Quakers, and other 
sectaries that had been under persecution, ascribing the 15 
Indian wars, and other distresses that had befallen the 
country, to that persecution, as so many judgements of 
God to punish so heinous an offence, and exhorting a 
repeal of those uncharitable laws. The whole appeared 
to me as written with a good deal of decent plainness 20 
and manly freedom. The six concluding lines I remem- 
ber, though I have forgotten the two first of the stanza ; 
but the purport of them was, that his censures proceeded 
from good will, and, therefore, he would be known to be 
the author. 25 

" Because to be a libeller (says he) 

I hate it with my heart; 
From Sherburne town, w^here now I dwell 

My name I do put here; 
Without offence your real friend, 30 

It is Peter Folgier." 



52 Franklin's Autobiography 

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different 
trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight years 
of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of 
his sons, to the service of the Church. My early readi- 
Sness in learning to read (which must have been very 
early, as I do not remember when I could not read), 
and the opinion of all his friends, that I should certainly 
make a good scholar, encouraged him in this purpose of 
his. My uncle Benjamin, too, approved of it, and pro- 

lo posed to give me all his short-hand volumes of sermons, 
I suppose as a stock to set up with, if I would learn his 
character. I continued, however, at the grammar-school 
not quite one year, though in that time I had risen gradu- 
ally from the middle of the class of that year to be the 

15 head of it, and farther was removed into the next class 
above it, in order to go with that into the third at the 
end of the year. But my father, in the meantime, from 
a view of the expense of a college education, which having 
so large a family he could not well afford, and the mean 

20 living many so educated were afterwards able to obtain 
— reasons that he gave to his friends in my hearing — 
altered his first intention, took me from the grammar- 
school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithme- 
tic, kept by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownell, 

25 very successful in his profession generally, and that by 
mild, encouraging methods. Under him I acquired fair 
writing pretty soon, but I failed in the arithmetic, and 
made no progress in it. At ten years old I was taken 
home to assist my father in his business, which was that 

30 of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler ; a business he was 



Franklin's Autobiography 53 

not bred to, but had assumed on his arrival in New Eng- 
land, and on finding his dyeing trade would not maintain 
his family, being in Httle request. Accordingly, I was 
employed in cutting wick for the candles, filhng the dip- 
ping mould and the moulds for cast candles, attending 5 
the shop, going of errands, etc. 

I disliked the trade, and had a strong incHnation for 
the sea, but my father declared against it ; however, 
living near the water, I was much in and about it, learned 
early to swim well, and to manage boats ; and when in a 10 
boat or canoe with other boys, I was commonly allowed 
to govern, especially in any case of difficulty ; and upon 
other occasions I was generally a leader among the boys, 
and sometimes led them into scrapes, of which I will 
mention one instance, as it shows an early projecting 15 
pubKc spirit, though not then justly conducted. 

There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of the mill- 
pond, on the edge of which, at high water, we used to 
stand to fish for minnows. By much trampling, we had 
made it a mere quagmire. My proposal was to build a 20 
wharf there fit for us to stand upon, and I showed my 
comrades a large heap of stones, which were intended for 
a new house near the marsh, and which would very well 
suit our purpose. Accordingly, in the evening, when the 
workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my play- 25 
fellows, and working with them diligently hke so many 
emmets^ somedmes two or three to a stone, we brought 
them all away and built our little wharf. The next morn- 
ing the workmen were surprised at missing the stones, 

lAnts. 



54 Franklin's Autobiography 

which were found in our wharf. Inquiry was made after 
the removers; we were discovered and complained of; 
several of us were corrected by our fathers ; and, though 
I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me 

5 that nothing was useful which was not honest. 

I think you may like to know something of his person 
and character. He had an excellent constitution of body, 
was of middle stature, but well set, and very strong ; he 
was ingenious, could draw prettily, was skilled a little in 

lo music, and had a clear pleasing voice, so that when he 
played psalm tunes on his vioHn and sung withal, as he 
sometimes did in an evening after the business of the day 
was over, it was extremely agreeable to hear. He had a 
mechanical genius too, and, on occasion, was very handy 

IS in the use of other tradesmen's tools ; but his great ex- 
cellence lay in a sound understanding and soHd judgement 
in prudential matters, both in private and pubHc affairs. 
In the latter, indeed, he was never employed, the numer- 
ous family he had to educate and the straitness of his 

20 circumstances keeping him close to his trade ; but I re- 
member well his being frequently visited by leading peo- 
ple, who consulted him for his opinion in affairs of the 
town or of the church he belonged to, and showed a good 
deal of respect for his judgem.ent and advice : he was also 

25 much consulted by private persons about their affairs 
when any difficulty occurred, and frequently chosen an 
arbitrator between contending parties. At his table he 
liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible friend 
or neighbour to converse with, and always took care to 

30 start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which 



Franklin's Autobiography ^^ 

might tend to improve the minds of his children. By 
this means he turned our attention to what was good, 
just, and prudent in the conduct of hfe ; and Httle or no 
notice was ever taken of what related to the victuals on 
the table, whether it was well or ill dressed, in or out of 5 
season, of good or bad flavour, preferable or inferior to 
this or that other thing of the kind, so that I was brought 
up in such a perfect inattention to those matters as to be 
quite indifferent what kind of food was set before me, and 
so unobservant of it, that to this day if I am asked I can 10 
scarce tell a few hours after dinner what I dined upon. 
This has been a convenience to me in travelling, where 
my companions have befen sometimes very unhappy for 
want of a suitable gratification of their more delicate, 
because better instructed, tastes and appetites. 15 

My mother had likewise an excellent constitution : 
she suckled all her ten children. I never knew either 
my father or mother to have any sickness but that 
of which they died, he at 89, and she at 85 years of 
age. They he buried together at Boston, where I some 20 
years since placed a marble over their grave, with this 
inscription : 

JosiAH Franklin, 

and 

Abiah his wife, 25 

lie here interred. 

They lived lovingly together in wedlock 

fifty-five years. 

Without an estate, or any gainful employment, 

By constant labour and industry, 30 

with God's blessing, 



56 Franklin's Autobiography 

They maintained a large family 

comfortably, 
and brought up thirteen children 
and seven grandchildren 
5 reputably. 

From this instance, reader, 

Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, 

And distrust not Providence. 

He was a pious and prudent man ; 

10 She, a discreet and virtuous woman. 

Their youngest son. 

In filial regard to their memory, 

Places this stone. 

J. F. born 1655, died 1744, ^Fltat^ 89. 

15 A. F. born 1667, died 1752, 85. 

By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be 
grown old. I used to write more methodically. But one 
does not dress for private company as for a public ball. 
'Tis perhaps only negligence. 

20 To return : I continued thus employed in my father's 
business for two years, that is, till I was twelve years old ; 
and my brother John, who was bred to that business, 
having left my father, married, and set up for himself at 
Rhode Island, there was all appearance that I was des- 

25 tined to supply his place, and become a tallow-chandler. 
But my dislike to the trade continuing, my father was 
under apprehensions that if he did not find one for me 
more agreeable, I should break away and get to sea, as 
his son Josiah had done, to his great vexation. He there- 

30 fore sometimes took me to walk with him, and see joiners, 

1 Aged. 



Franklin's Autobiography 57 

bricklayers, turners, braziers, etc., at their work, that he 
might observe my inchnation, and endeavour to fix it on 
some trade or other on land. It has ever since been a 
pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their tools ; 
and it has been useful to me, having learned so much by it 5 
as to be able to do Httle jobs myself in my house when 
a workman could not readily be got, and to construct 
Htde machines for my experiments, while the intention of 
making the experiment was fresh and warm in my mind. 
My father at last fixed upon the cutler's trade, and my 10 
uncle Benjamin's son Samuel, who was bred to that busi- 
ness in London, being about that time established in Bos- 
ton, I was sent to be with him some time on liking. But 
his expectations of a fee with me displeasing my father, I 
was taken home again. , 15 

From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little 
money that came into my hands was ever laid out in 
books. Pleased with the Filgriufs Progress my first 
collection was of John Bunyan's works in separate little 
volumes. I afterward sold them to enable me to buy 20 
R. Burton's Historical Collections ; they were small 
chapmen's books, and cheap, 40 or 50 in all. My father's 
little library consisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, 
most of which I read, and have since often legretted that, 
at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more 25 
proper books had not fallen in my way, since it was now^ 
resolved I should not be a clergyman. Plutarch's Lives 
there was in which I read abundantly, and I still think 
that time spent to great advantage. There was also a 
book of De Foe's, called an Essay on Projects and another 30 



58 Franklin's Autobiography 

of Dr. Mather's, called Essays io do Good, which perhaps 
gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some 
of the principal future events of my hfe. 

This bookish inchnation at length determined my 

5 father to make me a printer, though he had already one 
son (James) of that profession. In 17 17 my brother 
James returned from England with a press and letters to 
set up his business in Boston. I liked it much better 
than that of my father, but still had a hankering for the 

10 sea. To prevent the apprehended effect of such an 
inclination, my father was impatient to have me bound 
to my brother. I stood out some time, but at last was 
persuaded, and signed the indentures when I was yet but 
twelve years old. I was to serve as an apprentice till I 

15 was twenty-one years of age, only I was to be allowed 
journeyman's wages during the last year. In a little time I 
made great proficiency in the business, and became a use- 
ful hand to my brother. I now had access to better books. 
An acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers 

20 enabled me sometimes to borrow a small one, which I 
was careful to return soon and clean. Often I sat up in 
my room reading the greatest part of the night, when the 
book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned 
early in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanted. 

25 And after some time an ingenious tradesman, Mr. 
Matthew Adams, who had a pretty collection of books, 
and who frequented our printing-house, took notice of 
me, invited me to his library, and very kindly lent me 
such books as I chose to read. I now took a fancy to 

30 poetry, and made some Httle pieces ; my brother, think- 



Franklin's Autobiography ^^ 

ing it might turn to account, encouraged me, and put me 
on composing occasional ballads. One was called TAe 
Lighthouse Tragedy, and contained an account of the 
drowning of Captain Worthilake, with his two daughters : 
the other was a sailor's song, on the taking of Teach (or 5 
Blackbeard) the pirate. They were wretched stuff, in 
the Grub-street-ballad style ; and when they were printed 
he sent me about the town to sell them. The first sold 
wonderfully, the event being recent, having made a great 
noise. This flattered my vanity ; but my father discour- lo 
aged me by ridiculing my performances, and telling me 
verse-makers were generally beggars. So I escaped being 
a poet, most probably a very bad one ; but as prose 
writing has been of great use to me in the course of my 
life, and was a principal means of my advancement, 1 15 
shall tell you how, in such a situation, I acquired what 
little ability I have in that way. 

There was another bookish lad in the town, John Col- 
lins by name, with whom I was intimately acquainted. 
We sometimes disputed, and very fond we were of argu-20 
ment, and very desirous of confuting one another, which 
disputatious turn, by the way, is apt to become a very 
bad habit, making people often extremely disagreeable 
in company by the contradiction that is necessary to 
bring it into practice ; and thence, besides souring and 25 
spoiling the conversation, is productive of disgusts and, 
perhaps enmities where you may have occasion for friend- 
ship. I had caught it by reading my father's books of 
dispute about religion. Persons of good sense, I have 
since observed, seldom fall into it, except lawyers, uni- 30 



6o Franklin's Autobiography 

versity men, and men of all sorts that have been bred 
at Edinborough. 

A question was once, somehow or other, started be- 
tween Collins and me, of the propriety of educating the 

5 female sex in learning, and their abilities for study. He 
was of opinion that it was improper, and that they were 
naturally unequal to it. I took the contrary side, per- 
haps a Httle for dispute's sake. He was naturally more 
eloquent, had a ready plenty of words ; and sometimes, 

lo as I thought, bore me down more by his fluency than by 
the strength of his reasons. As we parted without settling 
the point, and were not to see one another again for some 
time, I sat down to put my arguments in writing, which I 
copied fair and sent to him. He answered, and I replied. 

15 Three or four letters of a side had passed, when my father 
happened to find my papers and read them. Without 
entering into the discussion, he took occasion to talk to 
me about the manner of my writing; observed that, 
though I had the advantage of my antagonist in correct 

2ospelhng and pointing (which I owed to the printing- 
house), I fell far short in elegance of expression, in 
method and in perspicuity, of which he convinced me by 
several instances. I saw the justice of his remarks, and 
thence grew more attentive to the manner in writing, and 

25 determined to endeavour at improvement. 

About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spec- 
tator, It was the third. I had never before seen any of 
them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much 
delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and 

30 wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took 



Franklin's Autobiography 6i 

some of the papers, and, making short hints of the senti- 
ment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and 
then, without looking at the book, tried to complete the 
papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at 
length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in 5 
any suitable words that should come to hand. Then 
I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered 
some of my faults, and corrected them. But I found I 
wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting 
and using them, which I thought I should have acquired lo 
before that time if I had gone on making verses ; since the 
continual occasion for words of the same import, but of 
different length, to suit the measure, or of different sound 
for the rhyme, would have laid me under a constant neces- 
sity of searching for variety, and also have tended to fix 15 
that variety in my mind, and make me master of it. 
Therefore I took some of the tales and turned them into 
verse ; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten 
the prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes 
jumbled my collections of hints into confusion, and after 20 
some weeks endeavoured to reduce them into the best 
order, before I began to form the full sentences and com- 
plete the paper. This was to teach me method in the 
arrangement of thoughts. By comparing my work after- 
wards with the original, I discovered many faults and 25 
amended them ; but I sometimes had the pleasure of 
fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I 
had been lucky enough to improve the method or the 
language, and this encouraged me to think I might pos- 
sibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer, of 30 



62 Franklin's Autobiography 

which I was extremely ambitious. My time for these ex- 
ercises and for reading was at night, after work or before 
it began in the morning, or on Sundays, when I contrived 
to be in the printing-house alone, evading as much as I 
5 could the common attendance on pubHc worship which 
my father used to exact on me when I was under his care, 
and which indeed I still thought a duty, though I could 
not, as it seemed to me, afford time to practise it. 

When about i6 years of age I happened to meet with 

lo a book, written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable 
diet. I determined to go into it. My brother, being yet 
unmarried, did not keep house, but boarded himself and 
his apprentices in another family. My refusing to eat 
flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently 

15 chid for my singularity. I made myself acquainted with 
Tryon's manner of preparing some of his dishes, such as 
boiling potatoes or rice, making hasty pudding, and a 
few others, and then proposed to my brother, that if 
he would give me, weekly, half the money he paid for 

20 my board, I would board myself. He instantly agreed 
to it, and I presently found that I could save half what 
he paid me. This was an additional fund for buying 
books. But I had another advantage in it. My brother 
and the rest going from the printing-house to their meals, 

25 1 remained there alone, and dispatching presently my 
light repast, which often was no more than a biscuit or a 
slice of bread, a handful of raisins or a tart from the pas- 
try-cook's, and a glass of water, had the rest of the time 
till their return for study, in which I made the greater 

30 progress, from that greater clearness of head and quicker 



Franklin's Autobiography 6^ 

apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating 
and drinking. 

And now it was that, being on some occasion made 
ashamed of my ignorance in figures, which I had twice 
failed in learning when at school, I took Cocker's book 5 
of Arithmetic, and went through the whole by myself 
with great ease. I also read Seller's and Shermy's books 
of Navigation, and became acquainted with the Httle 
geometry they contain ; but never proceeded far in that 
science. x\nd I read about this time Locke On Human lo 
U7iderstanding, and the Art of Thiiiking^ by Messrs. du 
Port Royal. 

While I was intent on improving my language, I met 
with an English grammar (I think it was Greenwood's), 
at the end of which there w^ere two Httle sketches of the 15 
arts of rhetoric and logic, the latter finishing with a speci- 
men of a dispute in the Socratic method ; and soon after 
I procured Xenophon's Memorable Things of Socrates, 
wherein there are many instances of the same method. 
I was charmed with it, adopted it, dropped my abrupt con- 20 
tradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the 
humble inquirer and doubter. And being then, from 
reading Shaftesbury and Collins, became a real doubter 
in many points of* our religious doctrine, I found this 
method safest for myself and very embarrassing to those 25 
against whom I used it; therefore I took a delight in it, 
practised it continually, and grew very artful and expert in 
drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into conces- 
sions, the consequences of w^hich they did not foresee, 
entangling them in difficulties out of which they could 3° 



64 Franklin's Autobiography 

not extricate themselves, and so obtaining victories that 
neither myself nor my cause always deserved. I con- 
tinued this method some few years, but gradually left it, 
retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms 

5 of modest diffidence ; never using, when I advanced any- 
thing that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly^ 
undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positive- 
ness to an opinion ; but rather say, I conceive or appre- 
hend a thing to be so and so ; it appears to me, or / 

10 shoidd think it so or so, for such and such reasons; or / 
iniagine it to he so ; or // is so, if I am not mistaken. 
This habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to me 
when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinions, and 
persuade men into measures that I have been from time to 

15 time engaged in promoting; and, as the chief ends of con- 
versation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to 
persuade, I wish well-meaning, sensible men would not 
lessen their power of doing good by a positive, assuming 
manner, that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create op- 

20 position, and to defeat every one of those purposes for 
which speech was given to us, to wit, giving or receiving 
information or pleasure. For, if you would inform, a 
positive and dogmatical manner in advancing your senti- 
ments may provoke contradiction and prevent a candid 

25 attention. If you wish information and improvement 
from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time 
express yourself as firmly fixed in your present opinions, 
modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will 
probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your 

30 error. And by s-uch a manner, you can seldom hope to 



Franklin's Autobiography 65 

recommend yourself in pleasing your hearers, or to per- 
suade those whose concurrence you desire. Pope says, 
judiciously : 

''^Men sho7ild be tai{gJit as if you taught t/ieni not, 
And things ujiknowji propos'd as tJiings forgot ; " 5 

farther recommending to us 

"To speak, iho' sure, with seeming diffidence." 

And he might have coupled with this line that which he 
has coupled with another, I think, less properly, 

'•' For want of modesty is want of sense." 10 

If you ask, Why less properly ? I must repeat the lines, 

" Immodest words admit of no defence^ 
For want of modesty is want of sense." 

Now, is not luant of sense (where a man is so unfortunate 
as to want it) some apology for his want of modesty ? 15 
and would not the hnes stand more justly thus? 

*' Immodest words admit but this defence, 
That want of modesty is want of sense." 

This, however, I should submit to better judgements. 

]\Iy brother had, in 1720 or 1721, begun to print a news- 20 
paper. It was the second that appeared in America, and 
was called the Neiu England Courant. The only one 
before it was the Boston Neius- Letter, I remember liis 
being dissuaded by some of his friends from the under- 
taking, as not likely to succeed, one newspaper being, in 25 
their judgement, enough for America. At this time (17 71) 
there are not less than five-and-twenty. He went on, 
franklin's autobiography — 5 



66 Franklin's Autobiography 

however, with the undertaking, and after having worked 
in composing the types and printing off the sheets, I was 
employed to carry the papers through the streets to the 
customers. 

5 He had some ingenious men among his friends, who 
amused themselves by writing Httle pieces for this paper, 
which gained it credit and made it more in demand, and 
these gentlemen often visited us. Hearing their conver- 
sations, and their accounts of the approbation their papers 

lo were received with, I was excited to try my hand among 
them ; but, being still a boy, and suspecting that my 
brother would object to printing anything of mine in his 
paper if he knew it to be mine, I contrived to disguise 
my hand, and, writing an anonymous paper, I put it in at 

15 night under the door of the printing-house. It was found 
in the morning, and communicated to his writing friends 
when they called in as usual. They read it, commented 
on it in my hearing, and I had the exquisite pleasure of 
finding it met with their approbation, and that, in their 

20 different guesses at the author, none were named but men 
of some character among us for learning and ingenuity. 
I suppose now that I was rather lucky in my judges, and 
that perhaps they were not really so very good ones as I 
then esteemed them. 

25 Encouraged, however, by this, I wrote and conveyed 
in the same way to the press several more papers which 
were equally approved ; and I kept my secret till my 
small fund of sense for such performances was pretty well 
exhausted, and then I discovered it, when I began to be 

30 considered a little more by my brother's acquaintance, 



Franklin's Autobiography 67 

and in a manner that did not quite please him, as he 
thought, probably with reason, that it tended to make me 
too vain. And, perhaps, this might be one occasion of 
the differences that we began to have about this time. 
Though a brother, he considered himself as my master, 5 
and me as his apprentice, and, accordingly, expected the 
same services from me as he would from another, while 
I thought he demeaned me too much in some he required 
of me, who from a brother expected more indulgence. 
Our disputes were often brought before our father, and 1 10 
fancy I was either generally in the right, or else a better 
pleader, because the judgement was generally in my 
favour. But my brother was passionate, and had often 
beaten me, which I took extremely amiss; and, thinking 
my apprenticeship very tedious, I was continually wishing 15 
for some opportunity of shortening it, w^hich at length 
offered in a manner unexpected.^ 

One of the pieces in our newspaper on some political 
point, which I have now forgotten, gave offence to the 
Assembly. He was taken up, censured, and imprisoned 20 
for a month, by the speaker's warrant, I suppose, because 
he \vould not discover his author. I too was taken up and 
examined before the council; but, though I did not give 
them any satisfaction, they contented themselves with ad- 
monishing me, and dismissed me, considering me, per- 25 
haps, as an apprentice, who was bound to keep his 
master's secrets. 

^I fancy his harsh and tyrannical treatment of me might be 
a means of impressing me with that aversion to arbitrary power 
that has stuck to me through my whole life. — Franklin. 



68 Franklin's Autobiography 

During my brother's confinement, which I resented a 
good deal, notwithstanding our private differences, I had 
the management of the paper; and I made bold to give 
our rulers some rubs in it, which my brother took very 
5 kindly, while others began to consider me in an unfavour- 
able light, as a young genius that had a turn for libelling 
and satire. My brother's discharge was accompanied 
with an order of the House (a very odd one), that 
^' Jajues Fi^anklin should no longer p7'int the paper called 

lo the New E7igland CourantT 

There was a consultation held in our printing-house 
among his friends, what he should do in this case. Some 
proposed to evade the order by changing the name of 
the paper ; but my brother, seeing inconveniences in 

15 that, it was finally concluded on as a better way, to let 
it be printed for the future under the name of Benjamin 
Franklin ; and to avoid the censure of the Assembly, 
that might fall on him as still printing it by his appren- 
tice, the contrivance was that my old indenture should 

20 be returned to me, with a full discharge on the back of it, 
to be shown on occasion, but to secure to him the benefit 
of my service, I was to sign new indentures for the re- 
mainder of the term, which were to be kept private. A 
very flimsy scheme it was ; however, it was immediately 

25 executed, and the paper went on accordingly, under my 
name for several months. 

At length, a fresh difference arising between my brother 
and me, I took upon me to assert my freedom, presuming 
that he would not venture to produce the new indentures. 

30 It was not fair in me to take this advantage, and this I 



Franklin's Autobiography 69 

therefore reckon one of the first errata^ of my hfe ; but 
the unfairness of it weighed httle with me, when under 
the impressions of resentment for the blows his passion 
too often urged him to bestow upon me, though he was 
otherwise not an iU-natured man: perhaps I was too 5 
saucy and provoking. 

When he found I would leave him, he took care to 
prevent my getting employment in any other printing- 
house of the town, by going round and speaking to every 
master, who accordingly refused to give me work. I then 10 
thought of going to New York, as the nearest place where 
there was a printer ; and I was rather inclined to leave 
Boston when I reflected that I had already made myself 
a little obnoxious to the governing party, and, from the 
arbitrary proceedings of the Assembly in my brother's 15 
case, it was likely I might, if I staid, soon bring myself 
into scrapes ; and farther, that my indiscreet disputations 
about religion began to make me pointed at with horror 
by good people as an infidel or atheist. I determined on 
the point, but my father now siding with my brother, I 20 
was sensible that, if I attempted to go openly, means 
would be used to prevent me. ]\Iy friend Collins, there- 
fore, undertook to manage a little for me. He agreed 
with the captain of a Xew York sloop for my passage, 
under the notion of my being a young acquaintance of 25 
his. So I sold some of my books to raise a little money, 
was taken on board privately, and as we had a fair wind, 
in three days I found myself in New York, near 300 
miles from home, a boy of but 17, without the least 
1 Mistakes. 



yo Franklin's Autobiography 

recommendation to, or knowledge of any person in the 
place, and with very Httle money in my pocket. 

My inclinations for the sea were by this time worn out, 
or I might now have gratified them. But, having a trade, 

5 and supposing myself a pretty good workman, I offered 
my service to the printer in the place, old Mr. WiUiam 
Bradford, who had been the first printer in Pennsylvania, 
but removed from thence upon the quarrel of George 
Keith. He could give me no employment, having little 

loto do, and help enough already; but says he, ^^ My son 
at Philadelphia has lately lost his principal hand, Aquila 
Rose, by death ; if you go thither, I believe he may em- 
ploy you." Philadelphia was a hundred miles further; I 
set out, however, in a boat for Amboy, leaving my chest 

15 and things to follow me round by sea. 

In crossing the bay, we met with a squall that tore our 
rotten sails to pieces, prevented our getting into the Kill, 
and drove us upon Long Island. In our way, a drunken 
Dutchman, who was a passenger too, fell overboard ; when 

20 he was sinking, I reached through the water to his shock 
pate, and drew him up, so that we got him in again. His 
ducking sobered him a little, and he went to sleep, taking 
first out of his pocket a book, which he desired I would 
dry for him. It proved to be my old favourite author, Bun- 

25 yan's Pilgrim'' s Progress in Dutch, finely printed on good 
paper, with copper cuts, a dress better than I had ever 
seen it wear in its own language. I have since found 
that it has been translated into most of the languages 
of Europe, and suppose it has been more generally read 

30 than any other book, except perhaps the Bible. Honest 



Franklin's Autobiography 71 

John was the first that I know of who mixed narration and 
dialogue ; a method of writing very engaging to the reader, 
who in the most interesting parts finds himself, as it were, 
brought into the company and present at the discourse. 
De Foe in his Cmso, his Moll Flanders, Religious Court- 5 
ship, Family Instructor, and other pieces, has imitated it 
with success ; and Richardson has done the same in his 
Pamela, etc. 

When we drew near the island, we found it was at a 
place where there could be no landing, there being a 10 
great surf on the stony beach. So we dropped anchor, 
and swung round towards the shore. Some people came 
down to the water edge and hallooed to us, as we did to 
them ; but the wind was so high, and the surf so loud, 
that we could not hear so as to understand each other. 15 
There were canoes on the shore, and we made signs, and 
hallooed that they should fetch us ; but they either did 
not understand us, or thought it impracticable, so they 
went away, and night coming on, we had no remedy but 
to wait till the wind should abate ; and, in the meantime, 20 
the boatman and I concluded to sleep, if we could ; and 
so crowded into the scuttle,^ with the Dutchman, who was 
still wet, and the spray beating over the head of our boat, 
leaked through to us, so that \ve were soon almost as wet as 
he. In this manner we lay all night, with very little rest ; 25 
but, the wind abating the next day, we made a shift to 
reach Amboy before night, having been thirty hours on 
the water, without victuals, or any drink but a bottle of 
filthy rum, and the water we sailed on being salt. 

1 A small hatchway or opening in the deck covered with a lid. 



72 Franklin's Autobiography 

In the evening I found myself very feverish, and went 
into bed ; but, having read somewhere that cold water 
drunk plentifully was good for a fever, I followed the pre- 
scription, sweat plentifully most of the night, my fever left 
5 me, and in the morning, crossing the ferry, I proceeded 
on my journey on foot, having fifty miles to Burlington, 
where I was told I should find boats that would carry me 
the rest of the way to Philadelphia. 

It rained very hard all the day ; I was thoroughly 

lo soaked, and by noon a good deal tired ; so I stopped at a 
poor inn, where I staid all night, beginning now to wish 
that I had never left home. I cut so miserable a figure, 
too, that I found, by the questions asked me, I was sus- 
pected to be some runaway servant, and in danger of 

15 being taken up on that suspicion. However, I proceeded 
the next day, and got in the evening to an inn, within 
eight or ten miles of Burlington, kept by one Dr. Brown. 
He entered into conversation with me while I took some 
refreshment, and, finding I had read a little, became very 

20 sociable and friendly. Our acquaintance continued as 
long as he lived. He had been, I imagine, an itinerant 
doctor, for there was no town in England, or country in 
Europe, of which he could not give a very particular ac- 
count. He had some letters, and was ingenious, but 

25 much of an unbeliever, and wickedly undertook, some 
years after, to travesty the Bible in doggerel verse, as 
Cotton had done Virgil. By this means he set many of 
the facts in a very ridiculous light, and might have hurt 
weak minds if his work had been published ; but it never 

30 was. 



Franklin's Autobiography 73 

At his house I lay that night, and the next morning 
reached Burlington, but had the mortification to find 
that the regular boats were gone a little before my coming, 
and no other expected to go before Tuesday, this being 
Saturday; wherefore I returned to an old woman in the 5 
town, of whom I had bought gingerbread to eat on the 
water, and asked her advice. She invited me to lodge at 
her house till a passage by water should offer ; and being 
tired with my foot travelling, I accepted the invitation. 
She understanding I was a printer, would liave had me 10 
stay at that town and follow my business, being ignorant 
of the stock necessary to begin with. She w^as very hos- 
pitable, gave me a dinner of ox-cheek with great good 
will, accepting only of a pot of ale in return ; and I 
thought myself fixed till Tuesday should come. However, 15 
w^alking in the evening by the side of the river, a boat 
came by, which I found was going towards Philadelphia, 
with several people in her. They took me in, and, as 
there was no wnnd, w^e rowed all the way ; and about mid- 
night, not having yet seen the city, some of the company 20 
w^ere confident we must have passed it, and would row no 
farther ; the others knew not where we were ; so we put 
tow^ard the shore, got into a creek, landed near an old 
fence, wdth the rails of which we made a fire, the night 
being cold, in October, and there we remained till day- 25 
light. Then one of the company knew the place to be 
Cooper's Creek, a little above Philadelphia, w^hich w^e saw 
as soon as we got out of the creek, and arriv^ed there 
about eight or nine o'clock on the Sunday morning, and 
landed at the Market street wharf. 30 



74 Franklin's Autobiography 

I have been the more particular in this description of 
my journey, and shall be so of my first entry into that 
city, that you may in your mind compare such unHkely 
beginnings with the figure I have since made there. I 
5 was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come 
round by sea. I was dirty from my journey ; my pockets 
were stuffed out with shirts and stockings, and I knew no 
soul nor where to look for lodging. I was fatigued with 
travelling, rowing, and want of rest, I was very hungry ; 

lo and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar, 
and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the 
people of the boat for my passage, who at first refused it, 
on account of my rowing ; but I insisted on their taking 
it. A man being sometimes more generous when he has 

15 but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps 
through fear of being thought to have but little. 

Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the 
market-house I met a boy with bread. I had made many 
a meal on bread, and, inquiring where he got it, I went 

20 immediately to the baker's he directed me to, in Second 
street, and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had in 
Boston ; but they, it seems, were not made in Philadel- 
phia. Then I asked for a three-penny loaf, and was told 
they had none such. So not considering or knowing the 

25 difference of money, and the greater cheapness nor the 
names of his bread, I bade him give me three-penny 
worth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great 
puffy rolls. I was surprised at the quantity, but took it, 
and, having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll 

30 under each arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up 



Franklin's Autobiography 75 

Market street as far as Fourth street, passing by the door 
of Mr. Read, my future wife's father ; when she, standing 
at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly 
did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance. Then I 
turned and went down Chestnut street and part of Walnut 5 
street, eating my roll all the way, and, coming round, 
found myself again at Market street wharf, near the boat 
I came in, to which I went for a draught of the river 
water ; and, being filled with one of my rolls, gave the 
other two to a woman and her child that came down the 10 
river in the boat with us, and were waiting to go farther. 

Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by 
this time had many clean-dressed people in it, who were 
all walking the same way. I joined them, and thereby 
was led into the great meeting-house of the Quakers near 15 
the market. I sat down among them, and, after looking 
round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy 
through labour and want of rest the preceding night, I fell 
fast asleep, and continued so till the meeting broke up, 
when one was kind enough to rouse me. This was, there- 20 
fore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia. 

Walking down again toward the river, and looking in 
the faces of people, I met a young Quaker man, whose 
countenance I liked, and, accosting him, requested he 
would tell me where a stranger could get lodging. We 25 
were then near the sign of the Three Mariners. ^^ Here," 
says he, " is one place that entertains strangers, but it is 
not a reputable house ; if thee wilt walk with me, I'll 
show thee a better." He brought me to the Crooked 
Billet in Water street. Here I got a dinner ; and, while 30 



76 Franklin's Autobiography 

I was eating it, several sly questions were asked me, as it 
seemed to be suspected from my youth and appearance 
that I might be some runaway. 

After dinner, my sleepiness returned, and being shown 

5 to a bed, I lay down without undressing, and slept till six 
in the evening, was called to supper, went to bed again 
very early, and slept soundly till next morning. Then I 
made myself as tidy as I could, and went to Andrew 
Bradford the printer's. I found in the shop the old man 

10 his father, whom I had seen at New York, and who, 
travelhng on horseback, had got to Philadelphia before 
me. He introduced me to his son, who received me 
civilly, gave me a breakfast, but told me he did not at 
present want a hand, being lately supplied with one ; but 

15 there was another printer in town, lately set up, one 
Keimer, who, perhaps, might employ me ; if not, I should 
be welcome to lodge at his house, and he would give me 
a little work to do now and then till fuller business should 
offer. 

20 The old gentleman said he would go with me to the 
new printer ; and when we found him, '' Neighbour," says 
Bradford, " I have brought to see you a young man of 
your business ; perhaps you may want such a one." He 
asked me a few questions, put a composing stick ^ in my 

25 hand to see how I worked, and then said he would em- 
ploy me soon, though he had just then nothing for me to 
do ; and, taking old Bradford, whom he had never seen 
before, to be one of the town's people that had a good 

1 An adjustable metal frame in which a compositor sets up 
type. 



Franklin's Autobiography 77 

will for him, entered into a conversation on his present 
undertaking and prospects : while Bradford, not discov- 
ering that he was the other printer's father, on Keimer's 
saying he expected soon to get the greatest part of the 
business into his own hands, drew him on by artful ques- 5 
tions, and starting httle doubts, to explain all his views, 
w^hat interest he relied on, and in what manner he in- 
tended to proceed. I, who stood by and heard all, saw 
immediately that one of them was a crafty old sophister,^ 
and the other a mere novice.^ Bradford left me with 10 
Keimer, who was greatly surprised when I told him who 
the old man was. 

Keimer's printing-house, I found, consisted of an old 
shattered press, and one small, worn-out font ^ of English, 
which he was then using himself, composing an Elegy on 15 
Aquila Rose, before mentioned, an ingenious young man, 
of excellent character, much respected in the town, clerk 
of the Assembly, and a pretty poet. Keimer made verses 
too, but very indifferently. He could not be said to write 
them, for his manner was to compose them in the types 20 
directly out of his head. So there being no copy,'^ but 
one pair of cases,^ and the Elegy likely to require all the 
letter, no one could help him. I endeavoured to put his 
press (which he had not yet used, and of which he under- 
stood nothing) into order fit to be worked with ; and, 25 
promising to come and print off his Elegy as soon as he 

^ A quibbler or fallacious reasoner, hence, as in this instance, a 
deceiver or knave. 

2 A beginner, one without experience. 

^ A set of type. ^ Manuscript. ^ Frames holding type. 



78 Franklin's Autobiography 

should have got it ready, I returned to Bradford's, who 
gave me a Httle job to do for the present, and there I 
lodged and dieted. A few days after, Keimer sent for me 
to print off the Elegy. And now he had got another pair 

5 of cases, and a pamphlet to reprint, on which he set me 
to work. 

These two printers I found poorly qualified for their 
business. Bradford had not been bred to it, and was 
very illiterate ; and Keimer, though something of a scholar, 

10 was a mere compositor, knowing nothing of presswork. 
He had been one of the French prophets, and could act 
their enthusiastic agitations. At this time he did not pro- 
fess any particular religion, but something of all on occa- 
sion; was very ignorant of the world, and had, as I 

15 afterward found, a good deal of the knave in his com- 
position. He did not like my lodging at Bradford's while 
I worked with him. He had a house, indeed, but without 
furniture, so he could not lodge me ; but he got me a 
lodging at Mr. Read's, before mentioned, who was the 

20 owner of his house ; and, my chest and clothes being 
come by this time, I made rather a more respectable 
appearance in the eyes of Miss Read than I had done 
when she first happened to see me eating my roll in the 
street. 

25 I began now to have some acquaintance among the 
young people of the town, that were lovers of reading, 
with whom I spent my evenings very pleasantly; and 
gaining money by my industry and frugality, I lived very 
agreeably, forgetting Boston as much as I could, and not 

30 desiring that any there should know where I resided, 



Franklin's Autobiography 79 

except my friend Collins, who was in my secret, and 
kept it when I wrote to him. At length, an incident 
happened that sent me back again much sooner than I 
had intended. I had a brother-in-law, Robert Holmes, 
master of a sloop that traded between Boston and Dela- 5 
ware. He being at Newcastle, forty miles below Phila- 
delphia, heard there of me, and wrote me a letter 
mentioning the concern of my friends in Boston at my 
abrupt departure, assuring me of their good will to me, 
and that everything would be accommodated to my mind ic 
if I would return, to which he exhorted me very earnestly. 
I wrote an answer to his letter, thanked him for his advice, 
but stated my reasons for quitting Boston fully and in such 
a light as to convince him I was not so wrong as he had 
apprehended. 15 

Sir Wilham Keith, governor of the province, was then 
at Newcastle, and Captain Holmes, happening to be in 
company with him when my letter came to hand, spoke 
to him of me, and showed him the letter. The governor 
read it, and seemed surprised when he was told my age. 20 
He said I appeared a young man of promising parts, and 
therefore should be encouraged ; the printers at Philadel- 
phia were wretched ones ; and, if I would set up there, 
he made no doubt I should succeed ; for his part, he 
would procure me the public business, and do me every 25 
other service in his power. This my brother-in-law after- 
wards told me in Boston, but I knew as yet nothing of 
it ; when, one day, Keimer and I being at work together 
near the window, we saw the governor and another gen- 
tleman (which proved to be Colonel French, of Newcas- 30 



8o Franklin's Autobiography 

tie), finely dressed, come directly across the street to our 
house, and heard them at the door. 

Keimer ran down immediately, thinking it a visit to 
him ; but the governor inquired for me, came up, and 

5 with a condescension and politeness I had been quite 
■ unused to, made me many compliments, desired to be ac- 
quainted with me, blamed me kindly for not having made 
myself known to him when I first came to the place, and 
would have me away with him to the tavern, where he 

lo was going with Colonel French to taste, as he said, some 
excellent Madeira. I was not a little surprised, and 
Keimer stared like a pig poisoned. I went, however, with 
the governor and Colonel French to a tavern, at the cor- 
ner of Third street, and over the Madeira he proposed 

15 my setting up my business, laid before me the probabilities 
of success, and both he and Colonel French assured me 
I should have their interest and influence in procuring 
the pubUc business of both governments.^ On my doubt- 
ing whether my father would assist me in it, Sir WiUiam 

20 said he would give me a letter to him, in which he would 
state the advantages, and he did not doubt of prevailing 
with him. So it was concluded I should return to Boston 
in the first vessel, with the governor's letter recommend- 
ing me to my father. In the meantime the intention 

25 was to be kept a secret, and I went on working with 
Keimer as usual, the governor sending for me now and 
then to dine with him, a very great honour I thought it, 
and conversing with me in the most affable, famihar, and 
friendly manner imaginable. 

1 Pennsylvania and Delaware. 



Franklin's Autobiography 8i 

About the end of April, 1724, a little vessel offered for 
Boston. I took leave of Keimer as going to see my 
friends. The governor gave me an ample letter, saying 
many flattering things of me to my father, and strongly 
recommending the project of my setting up at Philadel-5 
phia as a thing that must make my fortune. We struck 
on a shoal in going down the bay, and sprung a leak ; we 
had a blustering time at sea, and were obliged to pump 
almost continually, at which I took my turn. We arrived 
safe, however, at Boston in about a fortnight. I had 10 
been absent seven months, and my friends had heard 
nothing of me ; for my brother Holmes was not yet re- 
turned, and had not written about me. My unexpected 
appearance surprised the family ; all were, however, 
very glad to see me, and made me welcome, except my 15 
brother. I went to see him at his printing-house. I was 
better dressed than ever while in his service, having a 
genteel new suit from head to foot, a watch, and my 
pockets lined with near five pounds sterling in silver. 
He received me not very frankly, looked me all over, and 20 
turned to his work again. 

The journeymen were inquisitive where I had been, 
what sort of a country it was, and how I liked it. I praised 
it much, and the happy life I led in it, expressing strongly 
my intention of returning to it ; and, one of them asking 25 
what kind of money we had there, I produced a handful 
of silver, and spread it before them, which was a kind of 
raree-show^ they had not been used to, paper being the 
money of Boston. Then I took an opportunity of let- 

1 A peep show. 
franklin's autobiography — 6 



82 Franklin's Autobiography 

ting them see my watch; and, lastly (my brother still 
grum and sullen), I gave them a piece of eight ^ to drink, 
and took my leave. This visit of mine offended him ex- 
tremely; for, when my mother some time after spoke to 

5 him of a reconciliation, and of her wishes to see us on 
good terms together, and that we might live for the future 
as brothers, he said I had insulted him in such a manner 
before his people that he could never forget or forgive it. 
In this, however, he was mistaken. 

lo My father received the governor's letter with some ap- 
parent surprise, but said little of it to me for some days, 
when Capt. Holmes returning he showed it to him, asked 
him if he knew Keith, and what kind of man he was ; 
adding his opinion that he must be of small discretion to 

15 think of setting a boy up in business who wanted yet three 
years of being at man's estate. Holmes said what he 
could in favour of the project, but my father was clear in 
the impropriety of it, and at last gave a flat denial to it. 
Then he wrote a civil letter to Sir WilHam, thanking him 

20 for the patronage he had so kindly offered me, but dechn- 
ing to assist me as yet in setting up, I being, in his opin- 
ion, too young to be trusted with the management of a 
business so important, and for which the preparation 
must be so expensive. 

25 My friend and companion ColHns, who was a clerk in 
the post-office, pleased with the account I gave him of 
my new country, determined to go thither also ; and, 
while I waited for my father's determination, he set out 
before me by land to Rhode Island, leaving his books, 
lA Spanish dollar (eight reals). 



Franklin's Autobiography 83 

which were a pretty collection of mathematics and natu- 
ral philosophy, to come with mine and me to New York, 
where he proposed to wait for me. 

My father, though he did not approve Sir William's 
proposition, was yet pleased that I had been able to obtain s 
so advantageous a character from a person of such note 
where I had resided, and that I had been so industrious 
and careful as to equip myself so handsomely in so short 
a time ; therefore, seeing no prospect of an accommoda- 
tion between my brother and me, he gave his consent to 10 
my returning again to Philadelphia, advised me to behave 
respectfully to the people there, endeavour to obtain the 
general esteem, and avoid lampooning ^ and libelling, to 
which he thought I had too much inclination ; telling me, 
that by steady industry and a prudent parsimony I might 15 
save enough by the time I was one-and-twenty to set me 
up ; and that, if I came near the matter, he would help 
me out with the rest. This was all I could obtain, except 
some small gifts as tokens of his and my mother's love, 
when I embarked again for New York, now with their 20 
approbation and their blessing. 

The sloop putting in at Newport, Rhode Island, I 
visited my brother John, who had been married and 
settled there some years. He received me very affection- 
ately, for he always loved me. A friend of his, one Ver- 25 
non, having some money due to him in Pennsylvania, 
about thirty-five pounds currency, desired I would receive 
it for him, and keep it till I had his directions what 
to remit it in. Accordingly, he gave me an order. 
1 Indulging in satire. 



84 Franklin's Autobiography 

This afterwards occasioned me a good deal of uneasi- 
ness. 

At Newport we took in a number of passengers for 
New York, among which were two young women, com- 
5 panions, and a grave, sensible, matronlike Quaker woman, 
with her attendants. I had shown an obhging readiness 
to do her some little services, which impressed her I sup- 
pose with a degree of good will toward me ; therefore, 
when she saw a daily growing familiarity between me and 

10 the two young women, which they appeared to encourage, 
she took me aside, and said, "Young man, I am con- 
cerned for thee, as thou hast no friend with thee, and 
seems not to know much of the world, or of the snares 
youth is exposed to ; depend upon it, those are very bad 

15 women ; I can see it in all their actions ; and if thee art 
not upon thy guard, they will draw thee into some dan- 
ger ; they are strangers to thee, and I advise thee, in a 
friendly concern for thy welfare, to have no acquaintance 
with them." As I seemed at first not to think so ill of 

20 them as she did, she mentioned some things she had 
observed and heard that had escaped my notice, but now 
convinced me she was right. I thanked her for her kind 
advice, and promised to follow it. When we arrived at 
New York, they told me where they lived, and invited 

25 me to come and see them; but I avoided it, and it was 
well I did; for the next day the captain missed a silver 
spoon and some other things, that had been taken out of 
his cabin, and, knowing that these were a couple of 
thieves, he got a warrant to search their lodgings, 

30 found the stolen goods, and had the thieves punished. 



Franklin's Autobiography 85 

So, though we had escaped a sunken rock, which we 
scraped upon in the passage, I thought this escape of 
rather more importance to me. 

At New York I found my friend ColHns, who had 
arrived there some time before me. We had been intimate 5 
from children, and had read the same books together ; 
but he had the advantage of more time for reading and 
studying, and a wonderful genius for mathematical learn- 
ing, in which he far outstripped me. While I lived in 
Boston, most of my hours of leisure for conversation 10 
were spent with him, and he continued a sober as well as 
an industrious lad ; was much respected for his learning by 
several of the clergy and other gentlemen, and seemed to 
promise making a good figure in life. But, during my 
absence, he had acquired a habit of sotting with brandy ; 15 
and I found by his own account, and what I heard from 
others, that he had been drunk every day since his 
arrival at New York, and behaved very oddly. He had 
gamed, too, and lost his money, so that I was obliged to 
discharge his lodgings, and defray his expenses to and at 20 
Philadelphia, which proved extremely inconvenient to me. 

The then governor of New York, Burnet (son of Bishop 
Burnet), hearing from the captain that a young man, 
one of his passengers, had a great many books, desired 
he would bring me to see him. I waited upon him ac- 25 
cordingly, and should have taken Collins with me but that 
he was not sober. The governor treated me with great 
civility, showed me his library, which was a very large 
one, and we had a good deal of conversation about books 
and authors. This was the second sfovernor who had 3° 



86 Franklin's Autobiography 

done me the honour to take notice of me ; which, to a poor 
boy Hke me, was very pleasing. 

We proceeded to Philadelphia. I received on the 
way Vernon's money, without which we could hardly have 

5 finished our journey. Collins wished to be employed in 
some counting-house ; but, whether they discovered his 
dramming by his breath, or by his behaviour, though he 
had some recommendations, he met with no success in 
any application, and continued lodging and boarding at 

lo the same house with me, and at my expense. Knowing 
I had that money of Vernon's, he was continually borrow- 
ing of me, still promising repayment as soon as he should 
be in business. At length he had got so much of it that 
I was distressed to think what I should do in case of 

IS being called on to remit it. 

His drinking continued, about which we sometimes 
quarrelled ; for, when a little intoxicated, he was very 
fractious. Once, in a boat on the Delaware with some 
other young men, he refused to row in his turn. " I will 

20 be rowed home," says he. " We will not row you," says 
I. '^ You must, or stay all night on the water," says he, 
"just as you please." The others said, " Let us row ; what 
signifies it?" But, my mind being soured with his other 
conduct, I continued to refuse. So he swore he would 

25 make me row, or throw me overboard ; and coming along, 
stepping on the thwarts,^ toward me, when he came up 
and struck at me, I clapped my hand under his crotch, 
and, rising, pitched him head-foremost into the river. I 
knew he was a good swimmer, and so was under little 
1 The rowers' seats. 



Franklin's Autobiography 87 

concern about him ; but before he could get round to 
lay hold of the boat, we had with a few strokes pulled her 
out of his reach ; and ever when he drew near the boat, 
we asked if he would row, striking a few strokes to shde 
her away from him. He was ready to die with vexation, S 
and obstinately would not promise to row. However, 
seeing him at last beginning to tire, we Hfted him in and 
brought him home dripping wet in the evening. We 
hardly exchanged a civil word afterwards, and a West 
India captain, who had a commission to procure a tutor 10 
for the sons of a gentleman at Barbados, happening to 
meet with him, agreed to carry him thither. He left me 
then, promising to remit me the first money he should 
receive in order to discharge the debt ; but I never 
heard of him after. 15 

The breaking into this money of Vernon's was one of 
the first great errata of my life ; and this affair showed 
that my father was not much out in his judgement when 
he supposed me too young to manage business of impor- 
tance. But Sir William, on reading his letter, said he 20 
was too prudent. There was great difference in persons ; 
and discretion did not always accompany years, nor was 
youth always without it. ^^ And since he will not set 
you up," says he, *^ I will do it myself. Give me an 
inventory of the things necessary to be had from England, 25 
and I will send for them. You shall repay me when you 
are able ; I am resolved to have a good printer here, and 
I am sure you must succeed." This was spoken with 
such an appearance of cordiality, that I had not the least 
doubt of his meaning what he said. I had hitherto kept 30 



88 Franklin's Autobiography 

the proposition of my setting up, a secret in Philadelphia, 
and I still kept it. Had it been known that I depended 
on the governor, probably some friend, that knew him 
better, would have advised me not to rely on him, as I 
5 afterwards heard it as his known character to be Hberal 
of promises which he never meant to keep. Yet, unsolic- 
ited as he was by me, how could I think his generous 
offers insincere ? I beHeved him one of the best men in 
the world. 

lo I presented him an inventory of a little printing-house, 
amounting by my computation to about one hundred 
pounds sterling. He hked it, but asked me if my being 
on the spot in England to choose the types, and see that 
everything was good of the kind, might not be of some 

15 advantage. '^Then," says he, ^' when there, you may 
make acquaintances, and estabHsh correspondences in 
the bookselling and stationery way." I agreed that this 
might be advantageous. ^* Then," says he, " get yourself 
ready to go with Annis ; " which was the annual ship, and 

20 the only one at that time usually passing between London 
and Philadelphia. But it would be some months before 
Annis sailed, so I continued working with Keimer, fretting 
about the money Collins had got from me, and in daily 
apprehensions of being called upon by Vernon, which, 

25 however, did not happen for some years after. 

I beheve I have omitted mentioning that, in my first 
voyage from Boston, being becalmed off Block Island, 
our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a great 
many. Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution ofnoteat- 

3oing animal food, and on this occasion I considered, with 



Franklin's Autobiography 89 

my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of un- 
provoked murder, since none of them had, or ever could 
do us any injury that might justify the slaughter. x\ll this 
seemed very reasonable. But I had formerly been a 
great lover of fish, and, when this came hot out of the 5 
frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanced some time 
between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, 
when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out 
of their stomachs ; then thought I, '^ If you eat one 
another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you." -^ So I dined 10 
upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other 
people, returning only now and then occasionally to a 
vegetable diet. So convenient a thing is it to be a reason- 
able creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason 
for every thing one has a mind to do. 15 

Keimer and I lived on a pretty good familiar footing, 
and agreed tolerably well, for he suspected nothing of my 
setting up. He retained a great deal of his old enthu- 
siasms and loved argumentation. We therefore had 
many disputations. I used to w^ork him so with my 20 
Socratic method, and had trepanned him so often by 
questions apparently so distant from any point we had in 
hand, and yet by degrees led to the point, and brought 
him into difficulties and contradictions, that at last he 
grew ridiculously cautious, and would hardly answer me 25 
the most common question, without asking first, ^^ What 
do yo2{ i7itend to ifjfer fro7?i that?'' However, it gave him 
so high an opinion of my abilities in the confuting way, 
that he seriously proposed my being his colleague in a 
project he had of setting up a new sect. He was to 30 



go Franklin's Autobiography 

preach the doctrines, and I was to confound all op- 
ponents. When he came to explain with me upon the 
doctrines, I found several conundrums which I objected 
to, unless I might have my way a little too, and introduce 

5 some of mine. 

Keimer wore his beard at full length, because some- 
where in the Mosaic law it is said, '^Thou shalt not mar 
the corners of thy beards He likewise kept the Seventh 
day, Sabbath ; and these two points were essentials with 

lo him. I disUked both ; but agreed to admit them upon 
condition of his adopting the doctrine of using no animal 
food. "I doubt," said he, ^^ my constitution will not bear 
that." I assured him it would, and that he would be the 
better for it. He was usually a great glutton, and Iprom- 

isised myself some diversion in half starving him. He 
agreed to try the practice, if I would keep him company. 
I did so, and we held it for three months. We had our 
victuals dressed, and brought to us regularly by a woman 
in the neighbourhood, who had from me a list of forty 

20 dishes, to be prepared for us at different times, in all 
which there was neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, and the whim 
suited me the better at this time from the cheapness of 
it, not costing us above eighteenpence sterhng each per 
week. I have since kept several Lents most strictly, leav- 

25 ing the common diet for that, and that for the common, 
abruptly, without the least inconvenience, so that I think 
there is Httle in the advice of making those changes by 
easy gradations. I went on pleasantly, but poor Keimer 
suffered grievously, tired of the project, longed for the 

30 flesh-pots of Egypt, and ordered a roast pig. He invited 



Franklin's Autobiography 91 

me and two women friends to dine with him ; but, it 
being brought too soon upon table, he could not resist 
the temptation, and ate the whole before we came. 

I had made some courtship during this time to Miss 
Read. I had a great respect and affection for her, 5 
and had some reason to believe she had the same for 
me ; but, as I was about to take a long voyage, and we 
were both very young, only a little above eighteen, it 
was thought most prudent by her mother to prevent our 
going too far at present, as a marriage, if it was to take 10 
place, would be more convenient after my return when 
I should be, as I expected, set up in my business. Per- 
haps, too, she thought my expectations not so well founded 
as I imagined them to be. 

My chief acquaintances at this time were Charles 15 
Osborne, Joseph Watson, and James Ralph, all lovers of 
reading. The two first were clerks to an eminent scriv- 
ener or conveyancer in the town, Charles Brogden ; ^ the 
other was clerk to a merchant. Watson was a pious, 
sensible young man, of great integrity; the others rather 20 
more lax in their principles of rehgion, particularly Ralph, 
who, as well as Collins, had been unsettled by me, for 
which they both made me suffer. Osborne was sensible, 
candid, frank ; sincere and affectionate to his friends ; but, 
in hterary matters, too fond of criticizing. Ralph was in- 25 
genious, genteel in his manners, and extremely eloquent ; 
I think I never knew a prettier talker. Both of them 
great admirers of poetry, and began to try their hands 
in little pieces. Many pleasant walks we four had to- 
1 Properly spelled Brockden. 



g2 Franklin's Autobiography 

gather on Sundays into the woods, near Schuylkill, where 

we read to one another, and conferred on what we read. 

Ralph was incHned to pursue the study of poetry, not 

doubting but he might become eminent in it, and make 

5 his fortune by it, alleging that the best poets must, when 
they first began to write, make as many faults as he did. 
Osborne dissuaded him, assured him he had no genius for 
poetry, and advised him to think of nothing beyond the bus- 
iness he was bred to ; that, in the mercantile way, though 

lo he had*no stock, he might, by his dihgence and punctual- 
ity, recommend himself to employment as a factor, and 
in time acquire wherewith to trade on his own account. 
I approved the amusing one's self with poetry now and 
then, so far as to improve one's language, but no farther. 

15 On this it was proposed that we should each of us, at 
our next meeting, produce a piece of our own composing, 
in order to improve by our mutual observations, criti- 
cisms, and corrections. As language and expression were 
what we had in view, we excluded all considerations of 

20 invention by agreeing that the task should be a version 
of the eighteenth Psalm, which describes the descent of a 
Deity. When the time of our meeting drew nigh, Ralph 
called on me first, and let me know his piece was ready. 
I told him I had been busy, and, having Httle incHnation, 

25 had done nothing. He then showed me his piece for 
my opinion, and I much approved it, as it appeared to me 
to have great merit. " Now," says he, '* Osborne never 
will allow the least merit in anything of mine, but makes 
1000 criticisms out of mere envy. He is not so jealous 

30 of you ; I wish, therefore, you would take this piece, and 



Franklin's Autobiography 93 

produce it as yours ; I will pretend not to have had time, 
and so produce nothing. We shall then see what he will 
say to it." It was agreed, and I immediately transcribed 
it, that it might appear in my own hand. 

We met ; Watson's performance was read ; there were 5 
some beauties in it, but many defects. Osborne's was 
read; it was much better; Ralph did it justice; re- 
marked some faults, but applauded the beauties. He 
himself had nothing to produce. I was backward ; seemed 
desirous of being excused ; had not had sufficient time 10 
to correct, etc. ; but no excuse could be admitted ; pro- 
duce I must. It was read and repeated; Watson and 
Osborne gave up the contest, and joined in applauding it. 
Ralph only made some criticisms, and proposed some 
amendments ; but I defended my text. Osborne was 15 
against Ralph, and told him he was no better a critic 
than poet, so he dropped the argument. As they two went 
home together, Osborne expressed himself still more 
strongly in favour of what he thought my production; 
having restrained himself before, as he said, lest I should 20 
think it flattery. " But who would have imagined," said 
he, ^' that Franklin had been capable of such a perform- 
ance ; such painting, such force, such fire ! He has even 
improved the original. In his common conversation he 
seems to have no choice of words ; he hesitates and 25 
blunders ; and yet, good God ! how he writes ! " When 
we next met, Ralph discovered the trick we had played 
him, and Osborne was a little laughed at. 

This transaction fixed Ralph in his resolution of be- 
coming a poet. I did all I could to dissuade him from 30 



94 Franklin's Autobiography 

it, but he continued scribbling verses till Pope cured him. 
He became, however, a pretty good prose writer. More 
of him hereafter. But, as I may not have occasion again 
to mention the other two, I shall just remark here, that 
5 Watson died in my arms a few years after, much lamented, 
being the best of our set. Osborne went to the West 
Indies, where he became an eminent lawyer and made 
money, but died young. He and I had made a serious 
agreement, that the one who happened first to die should, 

lo if possible, make a friendly visit to the other, and acquaint 
him how he found things in that separate state. But he 
never fulfilled his promise. 

The governor, seeming to like my company, had me 
frequently to his house, and his setting me up was always 

15 mentioned as a fixed thing. I was to take with me letters 
recommendatory to a number of his friends, besides the 
letter of credit to furnish me with the necessary money 
for purchasing the press and types, paper, etc. For these 
letters I was appointed to call at different times, when 

20 they were to be ready ; but a future time was still named. 
Thus he went on till the ship, whose departure too 
had been several times postponed, was on the point of 
saiHng. Then, when I called to take my leave and 
receive the letters, his secretary. Dr. Bard, came out to 

25 me and said the governor was extremely busy in writing, 
but would be down at Newcastle before the ship, and 
there the letters would be delivered to me. 

Ralph, though married, and having one child, had de- 
termined to accompany me in this voyage. It was 

30 thought he intended to estabHsh a correspondence, and 



Franklin's Autobiography 95 

obtain goods to sell on commission ; but I found after- 
wards, that, through some discontent with his wife's rela- 
tions, he purposed to leave her on their hands, and never 
return again. Having taken leave of my friends, and 
interchanged some promises with Miss Read, I left Phila- 5 
delphia in the ship, which anchored at Newcastle. The 
governor was there ; but w^hen I went to his lodging, the 
secretary came to me from him with the civillest message 
in the world, that he could not then see me, being en- 
gaged in business of the utmost importance, but should 10 
send the letters to me on board, wished me heartily a 
good voyage and a speedy return, etc. I returned on 
board a little puzzled, but still not doubting. 

Mr. Andrew Hamilton, a famous lawyer of Philadelphia, 
had taken passage in the same ship for himself and son, 15 
and with Mr. Denham, a Quaker merchant, and Messrs. 
Onion and Russel, masters of an iron w^ork in Maryland, 
had engaged the great cabin ; so that Ralph and I were 
forced to take up w^ith a berth in the steerage, and none on 
board knowing us, were considered as ordinary persons. 20 
But Mr. Hamilton and his son (it was James, since gov- 
ernor) returned from Newcastle to Philadelphia, the 
father being recalled by a great fee to plead for a seized 
ship ; and, just before we sailed. Colonel French coming 
on board, and showing me great respect, I w^as more taken 25 
notice of, and, with my friend Ralph, invited by the other 
gentlemen to come into the cabin, there being now room. 
Accordingly, we removed thither. 

Understanding that Colonel French had brought on 
board the governor's despatches, I asked the captain for 30 



96 Franklin's Autobiography 

those letters that were to be under my care. He said 
all were put into the bag together and he could not then 
come at them ; but, before we landed in England, I 
should have an opportunity of picking them out ; so I 
5 was satisfied for the present, and we proceeded on our 
voyage. We had a sociable company in the cabin, and 
lived uncommonly well, having the addition of all Mr. 
Hamilton's stores, who had laid in plentifully. In this 
passage Mr. Denham contracted a friendship for me that 

10 continued during his life. The voyage was otherwise not 
a pleasant one, as we had a great deal of bad weather. 

When we came into the Channel, the captain kept his 
word with me, and gave me an opportunity of examining 
the bag for the Governor's letters. I found none upon 

15 which my name was put as under my care. I picked out 
six or seven, that, by the handwriting, I thought might be 
the promised letters, especially as one of them was di- 
rected to Basket, the king's printer, and another to some 
stationer. We arrived in London the 24th of December, 

20 1724. I waited upon the stationer, who came first in my 
way, delivering the letter as from Governor Keith. " I 
don't know such a person," says he; but, opening the 
letter, *^ O ! this is from Riddlesden. I have lately found 
him to be a complete rascal, and I will have nothing to 

25 do with him, nor receive any letters from him." So, put- 
ting the letter into my hand, he turned on his heel and 
left me to serve some customer. I was surprised to find 
these were not the governor's letters ; and, after recollecting 
and comparing circumstances, I began to doubt his sin- 

socerity. I found my friend Denham, and opened the 



Franklin's Autobiography 97 

whole affair to him. He let me into Keith's character ; 
told me there was not the least probabihty that he had 
written any letters for me ; that no one, who knew him, 
had the smallest dependence on him ; and he laughed at 
the notion of the governor's giving me a letter of credit, 5 
having, as he said, no credit to give. On my expressing 
some concern about what I should do, he advised me to 
endeavour getting some employment in the way of my 
business. "Among the printers here," said he, "you 
will improve yourself, and when you return to America, 10 
you will set up to greater advantage." 

We both of us happened to know, as well as the sta- 
tioner, that Riddlesden, the attorney, was a very knave. 
He had half ruined Miss Read's father by persuading him 
to be bound for him. By this letter it appeared there 15 
was a secret scheme on foot to the prejudice of Hamilton 
(supposed to be then coming over with us) ; and that 
Keith was concerned in it with Riddlesden. Denham, 
who was a friend of Hamilton's thought he ought to be 
acquainted with it ; so, when he arrived in England, 20 
which was soon after, partly from resentment and ill will 
to Keith and Riddlesden, and partly from good will to 
him, I waited on him, and gave him the letter. He 
thanked me cordially, the information being of impor- 
tance to him ; and from that time he became my friend, 25 
greatly to my advantage aftersvards on many occasions. 

But what shall we think of a governor's playing such 
pitiful tricks, and imposing so grossly on a poor ignorant 
boy ! It was a habit he had acquired. He wished to 
please everybody; and, having little to give, he gave 30 
franklin's autobiography — 7 



98 Franklin's Autobiography 

expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious, sensible 
man, a pretty good writer, and a good governor for the 
people, though not for his constituents, the proprietaries, 
whose instructions he sometimes disregarded. Several of 
S our best laws were of his planning and passed during his 
administration. 

Ralph and I were inseparable companions. We took 
lodgings together in Little Britain at three shillings and 
sixpence a week — as much as we could then afford. 

10 He found some relations, but they were poor, and unable 
to assist him. He now let me know his intentions of re- 
maining in London, and that he never meant to return to 
Philadelphia. He had brought no money with him, the 
whole he could muster having been expended in paying 

15 his passage. I had fifteen pistoles ; so he borrowed 
occasionally of me to subsist, while he was looking out 
for business. He first endeavoured to get into the play- 
house, believing himself qualified for an actor; but 
Wilks, to whom he apphed, advised him candidly not to 

20 think of that employment, as it was impossible he should 
succeed in it. Then he proposed to Roberts, a pubHsher 
in Paternoster Row, to write for him a weekly paper like 
the Spectator on certain conditions, which Roberts did 
not approve. Then he endeavoured to get employment 

25 as a hackney writer, to copy for the stationers and lawyers 
about the Temple, but could find no vacancy. 

I immediately got into work at Palmer's, then a famous 
printing-house in Bartholomew Close, and here I continued 
near a year. I was pretty diligent, but spent with Ralph 

30 a good deal of my earnings in going to plays and other 



Franklin's Autobiography 99 

places of amusement. We had together consumed all my 
pistoles, and now just rubbed on from hand to mouth. 
He seemed quite to forget his wife and child, and I, by 
degrees, my engagements with Miss Read, to whom I 
never wrote more than one letter, and that was to lets 
her know I was not Hkely soon to return. This was 
another of the great errata of my hfe, which I should 
wish to correct if I were to live it over again. In fact, by 
our expenses, I was constantly kept unable to pay my 
passage. 10 

x^t Palmer's I was employed in composing for the 
second edition of WoUaston's Religion of Nature, Some 
of his reasonings not appearing to me well founded, I . 
wrote a little metaphysical piece in which I made remarks 
on them. It was entitled A Dissertation on Liberty and 15 
Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. I inscribed it to my friend 
Ralph; I printed a small number. It occasioned my 
being more considered by Mr. Palmer as a young man of 
some ingenuity, though he seriously expostulated with me 
upon the principles of my pamphlet, which to him ap- 20 
peared abominable. My printing this pamphlet was an- 
other erratum. While I lodged in Little Britain, I made 
an acquaintance with one Wilcox, a bookseller, whose 
shop was at the next door. He had an immense collec- 
tion of second-hand books. Circulating libraries were not 25 
then in use ; but we agreed that, on certain reasonable 
terms, which I have now forgotten, I might take, read, 
and return any of his books. This I esteemed a great 
advantage, and I made as much use of it as I could. 

My pamphlet by some means falling into the hands of 30 



loo Franklin's Autobiography 

one Lyons, a surgeon, author of a book entitled The 
Infallibility of Human Judgement^ it occasioned an ac- 
quaintance between us. He took great notice of me, 
called on me often to converse on those subjects, carried 

5 me to the Horns, a pale alehouse in Lane, Cheap- 
side, and introduced me to Dr. Mandeville, author of the 
Fable of the Bees, who had a club there, of which he 
was the soul, being a most facetious, entertaining com- 
panion. Lyons, too, introduced me to Dr. Pemberton, 

loat Batson's Coffee-house, who promised to give me an 
opportunity, some time or other, of seeing Sir Isaac 
Newton, of which I was extremely desirous ; but this 
never happened. 

I had brought over a few curiosities, among which the 

15 principal was a purse made of the asbestos, which purifies 
by fire. Sir Hans Sloane heard of it, came to see me, and 
invited me to his house in Bloomsbury Square, where he 
showed me all his curiosities, and persuaded me to let 
him add that to the number, for which he paid me hand- 

20 somely. 

In our house there lodged a young woman, a milliner 
who, I think, had a shop in the Cloisters. She had 
been genteelly bred, was sensible and lively, and of most 
pleasing conversation. Ralph read plays to her in the 

25 evenings, they grew intimate, she took another lodging, 
and he followed her. They lived together some time ; 
but, he being still out of business, and her income not 
sufficient to maintain them with her child, he took a 
resolution of going from London, to try for a country 

30 school, which he thought himself well qualified to under- 



Franklin's Autobiography loi 

take, as he wrote an excellent hand, and was a master of 
arithmetic and accounts. This, however, he deemed a 
business below him, and confident of future better for- 
tune, when he should be unwilling to have it known that 
he once was so meanly employed, he changed his name, 5 
and did me the honour to assume mine ; for I soon after 
had a letter from him, acquainting me that he was settled 
in a small village (in Berkshire, I think it was, w^here he 
taught reading and writing to ten or a dozen boys, at six- 
pence each per week), recommending Mrs. T to 10 

my care, and desiring me to write to him, directing for 
Mr. FrankHn, schoolmaster, at such a place. 

He continued to write frequently, sending me large 
specimens of an epic poem which he was then composing, 
and desiring my remarks and corrections. These I gave 15 
him from time to time, but endeavoured rather to discour- 
age his proceeding. One of Young's Satires was then 
just published. I copied and sent him a great part of it, 
which set in a strong hght the folly of pursuing the Muses 
with any hope of advancement by them. All was in vain ; 20 
sheets of the poem continued to come by every post. I 
now began to think of getting a little money beforehand, 
and, expecting better work, I left Palmer's to work at 
Watts's, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, a still greater printing- 
house. Here I continued all the rest of my stay in Lon- 25 
don. 

At my first admisssion into this printing-house I 
took to w^orking at press, imagining I felt a want of 
the bodily exercise I had been used to in America, 
where presswork is mixed with composing. I drank 30 



I02 Franklin's Autobiography 

only water ; the other workmen, near fifty in number, 
were great guzzlers of beer. On one occasion, I carried 
up and down stairs a large form of types in each hand, 
when others carried but one in both hands. They 
5 wondered to see, from this and several instances, that 
the Water- American, as they called me, was stronger 
than themselves, who drank strong beer ! We had an 
alehouse boy who attended always in the house to 
supply the workmen. My companion at the press drank 

lo every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast 
with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast 
and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon 
about six o'clock, and another when he had done his 
day's work. I thought it a detestable custom ; but it 

15 was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer, that 
he might be strong to labour. I endeavoured to convince 
him that the bodily strength afforded by beer could 
only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the 
barley dissolved in the water of which it was made ; 

20 that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread; 
and therefore, if he would eat that with a pint of 
water, it would give him more strength than a quart 
of beer. He drank on, however, and had four or five 
shilHngs to pay out of his wages every Saturday night 

25 for that muddhng hquor ; an expense I was free from. 
And thus these poor devils keep themselves always 
under. 

Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me in the 
composing-room, I left the pressmen ; a new Men venu 

30 or sum for drink, being ^w^ shillings, was demanded 



Franklin's Autobiography 103 

of me by the compositors. I thought it an imposition, 
as I had paid below; the master thought so too, and 
forbade my paying it. I stood out two or three weeks, 
was accordingly considered as an excommunicate,^ and 
had so many httle pieces of private mischief done me, 5 
by mixing my sorts, transposing my pages, breaking my 
matter, etc., etc., if I were ever so htde out of the 
room, and all ascribed to the chapel ghost, which 
they said ever haunted those not regularly admitted, 
that, notwithstanding the master's protection, I found 10 
myself obliged to comply and pay the money, convinced 
of the folly of being on ill terms with those one is to 
live with continually. 

I was now on a fair footing with them, and soon 
acquired considerable influence. I proposed some reason- 15 
able alterations in their chapel^ laws, and carried them 
against all opposition. From my example, a great part 
of them left their muddling breakfast of beer, and bread, 
and cheese, finding they could with me be supplied from 

1 Like one who has been shut out from religious communion. 
Hence an outcast. 

2 "A printing-house is always called a chapel by the workmen, 
the origin of which appears to have been, that printing was first 
carried on in England in an ancient chapel converted into a print- 
ing-house, and the title has been preserved by tradition. The bien 
vejui among the printers answers to the terms entrance and footing 
among mechanics ; thus a journeyman, on entering a printing- 
house, was accustomed to pay one or more gallons of beer for the 
good of the chapel : this custom was falling into disuse thirty years 
ago ; it is very properly rejected entirely in the United States." — 
W. T. Franklin. 



I04 Franklin's Autobiography 

a neighbouring house with a large porringer^ of hot water- 
gruel, sprinkled with pepper, crumbed with bread, and 
a bit of butter in it, for the price of a pint of beer, 
viz., three half-pence. This was a more comfortable as 

5 well as cheaper breakfast, and kept their heads clearer. 
Those who continued sotting with beer all day, were 
often, by not paying, out of credit at the alehouse, and 
used to make interest with me to get beer ; their light^ 
as they phrased it, being out, I watched the pay-table 

loon Saturday night, and collected what I stood engaged 
for them, having to pay sometimes near thirty shilHngs a 
week on their accounts. This, and my being esteemed 
a pretty good riggite^ that is, a jocular verbal satirist, 
supported my consequence in the society. My constant 

15 attendance (I never making a St. Monday) recommended 
me to the master; and my uncommon quickness at 
composing occasioned my being put upon all work of 
dispatch, which was generally better paid. So I went 
on now very agreeably. 

20 My lodging in Little Britain being too remote, I 
found another in Duke street, opposite to the Romish 
Chapel. It was two pair of stairs backwards, at an 
Italian warehouse. A widow lady kept the house ; she 
had a daughter, and a maid servant, and a journeyman 

25 who attended the warehouse, but lodged abroad. After 
sending to inquire my character at the house where I 
last lodged she agreed to take me in at the same rate, 3s. 
6d. per week ; cheaper, as she said, from the protection 
she expected in having a man lodge in the house. 
1 A porridge pot. ^ Credit. 



Franklin's Autobiography 105 

She was a widow, an elderly woman ; had been bred 
a Protestant, being a clergyman's daughter, but was con- 
verted to the Catholic religion by her husband, whose 
memory she much revered ; had lived much among 
people of distinction, and knew a thousand anecdotes 5 
of them as far back as the times of Charles the Second. 
She w^as lame in her knees with the gout, and, there- 
fore, seldom stirred out of her room, so sometimes 
wanted company ; and hers was so highly amusing to 
me, that I was sure to spend an evening with her 10 
whenever she desired it. Our supper was only half an 
anchovy each, on a very little strip of bread and butter, 
and half a pint of ale between us ; but the entertain- 
ment was in her conversation. My always keeping 
good hours, and giving little trouble in the family, made 15 
her unwilling to part with me ; so that, when I talked 
of a lodging I had heard of, nearer my business, for 
two shillings a week, w^hich, intent as I now was on 
saving money, made some difference, she bid me not 
think of it, for she would abate me two shillings a week 20 
for the future; so I remained with her at one shilling and 
sixpence as long as I staid in England. 

In a garret of her house there lived a maiden lady of 
seventy, in the most retired manner, of whom my land- 
lady gave me this account : that she was a Roman 25 
Catholic, had been sent abroad when young, and lodged 
in a nunnery with an intent of becoming a nun ; but, the 
country not agreeing with her, she returned to England, 
where, there being no nunnery, she had vowed to lead the 
life of a nun, as near as might be done in those circum- 30 



io6 Franklin's Autobiography 

stances. Accordingly, she had given all her estate to 
charitable uses, reserving only twelve pounds a year to 
live on, and out of this sum she still gave a great deal in 
charity, living herself on water-gruel only, and using no 
5 fire but to boil it. She had lived many years in that 
garret, being permitted to remain there gratis by succes- 
sive Catholic tenants of the house below, as they deemed 
it a blessing to have her there. A priest visited her to 
confess her every day. " I have asked her," says my land- 

lo lady, " how she, as she lived, could possibly find so much 
employment for a confessor?" '^ Oh," said she, "it is 
impossible to avoid vain thoughts,^'' I was permitted 
once to visit her. She was cheerful and polite, and con- 
versed pleasantly. The room was clean, but had no other 

15 furniture than a mattress, a table with a crucifix and book, 
a stool which she gave me to sit on, and a picture over 
the chimney of Saint Veronica displaying her handkerchief 
with the miraculous figure of Christ's bleeding face on it, 
which she explained to me with great seriousness. She 

20 looked pale, but was never sick ; and I give it as another 
instance on how small an income, Hfe and health may 
be supported. 

At Watts's printing-house I contracted an acquaintance 
with an ingenious young man, one Wygate, who, having 

25 wealthy relations, had been better educated than most 
printers ; was a tolerable Latinist, spoke French, and 
loved reading. I taught him and a friend of his to swim 
at twice going into the river, and they soon became good 
swimmers. They introduced me to some gentlemen 

30 from the country, who went to Chelsea by water to see 



Franklin's Autobiography 107 

the College and Don Saltero's curiosities. On our return, 
at the request of the company, whose curiosity Wygate 
had excited, I stripped and leaped into the river, and 
swam from near Chelsea to Blackfriar's performing on the 
way many feats of activity, both upon and under water, 5 
that surprised and pleased those to whom they were 
novelties. 

I had from a child been ever delighted with this ex- 
ercise, had studied and practised all Thevenot's motions 
and positions, added some of my own, aiming at the 10 
graceful and easy as well as the useful. All these I took 
this occasion of exhibiting to the company, and was 
much flattered by their admiration ; and Wygate, who 
was desirous of becoming a master, grew more and more 
attached to me on that account, as well as from the simi- 15 
larity of our studies. He at length proposed to me 
travelling all over Europe together, supporting ourselves 
everywhere by working at our business. I was once 
inclined to it ; but, mentioning it to my good friend Mr. 
Denham, with whom I often spent an hour when I had 20 
leisure, he dissuaded me from it, advising me to think 
only of returning to Pennsylvania, which he was now 
about to do. 

I must record one trait of this good man's character. 
He had formerly been in business at Bristol, but failed in 25 
debt to a number of people, compounded and went to 
America. There, by a close application to business as a 
merchant, he acquired a plentiful fortune in a few years. 
Returning to England in the ship with me, he invited his 
old creditors to an entertainment, at which he thanked 30 



io8 Franklin's Autobiography 

them for the easy composition ^ they had favoured him 
with, and, when they expected nothing but the treat, 
every man at the first remove found under his plate an 
order on a banker for the full amount of the unpaid re- 

5 mainder with interest. 

He now told me he was about to return to Philadelphia, 
and should carry over a great quantity of goods in order 
to open a store there. He proposed to take me over as 
his clerky to keep his books, in which he would instruct 

lo me, copy his letters, and attend the store. He added, 
that, as soon as I should be acquainted with mercantile 
business, he would promote me by sending me with a 
cargo of flour and bread, etc., to the West Indies, and 
procure me commissions from others which would be 

15 profitable ; and, if I managed well, would establish me 
handsomely. The thing pleased me ; for I was grown 
tired of London, remembered with pleasure the happy 
months I had spent in Pennsylvania, and wished again to 
see it ; therefore I immediately agreed on the terms of 

20 fifty pounds a year, Pennsylvania money ; less, indeed, 
than my present gettings as a compositor, but affording a 
better prospect. 

I now took leave of printing, as I thought, forever, 
and was daily employed in my new business, going about 

25 with Mr. Denham among the tradesmen to purchase 
various articles, and seeing them packed up, doing 
errands, calling upon workmen to dispatch, etc. ; and, 
when all was on board, I had a few days' leisure. On 
one of these days, I was, to my surprise, sent for by a 
1 Terms of settlement. 



Franklin's Autobiography 109 

great man I knew only by name, a Sir William Wyndham, 
and I waited upon him. He had heard by some means 
or other of my swimming from Chelsea to Blackfriars, and 
of my teaching Wygate and another young man to swim 
in a few hours. He had two sons, about to set out on their 5 
travels ; he wished to have them first taught swimming, 
and proposed to gratify^ me handsomely if I would 
teach them. They were not yet come to town, and my 
stay was uncertain, so I could not undertake it ; but, 
from this incident, I thought it likely that, if I were to 10 
remain in England and open a swimming-school, I might 
get a good deal of money ; and it struck me so strongly, 
that, had the overture been sooner made me, probably I 
should not so soon have returned to America. After 
many years, you and I had something of more impor- 15 
tance to do with one of these sons of Sir William Wynd- 
ham, become Earl of Egremont, which I shall mention 
in its place. 

Thus I spent about eighteen months in London ; most 
part of the time I worked hard at my business, and spent 20 
but little upon myself except in seeing plays and in 
books. My friend Ralph had kept me poor j he owed 
me about twenty-seven pounds, which I was now never 
likely to receive ; a great sum out of my small earnings ! 
I loved him, notwithstanding, for he had many amiable 25 
qualities. I had by no means improved my fortune ; but 
I had picked up some very ingenious acquaintance, whose 
conversation was of great advantage to me; and I had 
read considerably. 

1 Remunerate. 



no Franklin's Autobiography 

We sailed from Gravesend on the 23rd of July, 1726. 
For the incidents of the voyage, I refer you to my Jour- 
nal, where you will find them all minutely related. Per- 
haps the most important part of that journal is the plan ^ 

5 to be found in it, which I formed at sea, for regulating 

my future conduct in hfe. It is the more remarkable, 

as being formed when I was so young, and yet being 

pretty faithfully adhered to quite through to old age. 

We landed in Philadelphia on the nth of October, 

10 where I found sundry alterations. Keith was no longer 
governor, being superseded by Major Gordon. I met 
him walking the streets as a common citizen. He seemed 
a little ashamed at seeing me, but passed without saying 
anything. I should have been as much ashamed at see- 

15 ing Miss Read, had not her friends, despairing with reason 
of my return after the receipt of my letter, persuaded 
her to marry another, one Rogers, a potter, which was 
done in my absence. With him, however, she was never 
happy, and soon parted from him, refusing to cohabit 

20 with him or bear his name, it being now said that he 
had another wife. He was a worthless fellow, though 
an excellent workman, which was the temptation to her 
friends. He got into debt, ran away in 1727 or 1728, 
went to the West Indies, and died there. Keimer had 

25 got a better house, a shop well suppHed with station- 
ery, plenty of new types, a number of hands, though 
none good, and seemed to have a great deal of business. 
Mr. Denham took a store in Water street, where we 

1 The '' Journal " was printed by Sparks, from a copy made at 
Reading in 1787. But it does not contain the Plan. 



Franklin's Autobiography iii 

opened our goods ; I attended the business diligently, 
studied accounts, and grew, in a little time, expert at 
selling. We lodged and boarded together ; he counselled 
me as a father, having a sincere regard for me. I re- 
spected and loved him, and we might have gone on to- 5 
gether very happy ; but, in the beginning of February, 
172I, when I had just passed my twenty-first year, we 
both were taken ill. My distemper was a pleurisy, which 
very nearly carried me off. I suffered a good deal, gave 
up the point in my mind, and was rather disappointed 10 
when I found myself recovering, regretting, in some 
degree, that I must now, some time or other, have all 
that disagreeable work to do over again. I forget what 
his distemper was ; it held him along time, and at length 
carried him off. He left me a small legacy in a nun- 15 
cupative will,^ as a token of his kindness for me, and he 
left me once more to the wide world ; for the store was 
taken into the care of his executors, and my employment 
under him ended. 

My brother-in-law, Holmes, being now at Philadelphia^ 20 
advised my return to my business; and Keimer tempted 
me, with an offer of large wages by the year, to come 
and take the management of his printing-house, that he 
might better attend his stationer's shop. I had heard a 
bad character of him in London from his wife and her 25 
friends, and w^as not fond of having any more to do with 
him. I tried for farther employment as a merchant's 
clerk ; but, not readily meeting with any, I closed again 
with Keimer. I found in his house these hands : Hugh 
^ One given by word of mouth. 



112 Franklin's Autobiography 

Meredith, a Welsh Pennsylvanian thirty years of age, 
bred to country work ; honest, sensible, had a great deal 
of solid observation, was something of a reader, but given 
to drink. Stephen Potts, a young countryman 'of full age, 

5 bred to the same, of uncommon natural parts, and great 
wit and humour, but a little idle. These he had agreed 
with at extreme low wages per week, to be raised a shil- 
ling every three months, as they would deserve by im- 
proving in their business ; and the expectation of these 

10 high wages, to come on hereafter, was what he had 
drawn them in with. Meredith was to work at press, 
Potts at book- binding, which he, by agreement, was to 
teach them, though he knew neither one nor t'other. 
John , a wild Irishman, brought up to no business, 

15 whose service, for four years, Keimer had purchased from 
the captain of a ship ; he, too, was to be made a press- 
man. George Webb, an Oxford scholar, whose time for 
four years he had likewise bought, intending him for a 
compositor, of whom more presently ; and David Harry, 

20 a country boy, whom he had taken apprentice. 

I soon perceived that the intention of engaging me at 
wages so much higher than he had been used to give, 
was, to have these raw, cheap hands formed through me ; 
and, as soon as I had instructed them, then they being all 

25 articled^ to him, he should be able to do without me. 
I went on, however, very cheerfully, put his printing- 
house in order, which had been in great confusion, and 
brought his hands by degrees to mind their business and 
to do it better. 

1 Bound by articles of apprenticeship. 



Franklin's Autobiography 113 

It was an odd thing to find an Oxford scholar in the 
situation of a bought servant. He was not more than 
eighteen years of age, and gave me this account of him- 
self; that he was born in Gloucester, educated at a gram- 
mar-school there, had been distinguished among the 5 
scholars for some apparent superiority in performing 
his part, when they exhibited plays ; belonged to the 
Witty Club there, and had written some pieces in prose 
and verse, which were printed in the Gloucester news- 
papers ; thence he was sent to Oxford ; where he con- 10 
tinued about a year, but not well satisfied, wishing of all 
things to see London, and become a player. At length, 
receiving his quarterly allowance of fifteen guineas, in- 
stead of discharging his debts he walked out of town, hid 
his gown in a furze bush, and footed it to London, where, 15 
having no friends to advise him, he fell into bad company, 
soon spent his guineas, found no means of being intro- 
duced among the players, grew necessitous, pawned his 
clothes, and wanted bread. Walking the street very hun- 
gry, and not knowing what to do with himself, a crimp's 20 
bill was put into his hand, offering immediate entertain- 
ment and encouragement to such as would bind them- 
selves to serve in America. He went directly, signed the 
indentures, was put into the ship, and came over, never 
writing a line to acquaint his friends what was become 25 
of him. He was lively, witty, good-natured, and a pleas- 
ant companion, but idle, thoughtless, and imprudent to 
the last degree. 

John, the Irishman, soon ran away; with the rest I 
began to live very agreeably, for they all respected me 30 
franklin's autobiography — 8 



114 Franklin's Autobiography 

the more, as they found Keimer incapable of instructing 
them, and that from me they learned something daily. We 
never worked on Saturday, that being Keimer's Sabbath, 
so I had two days for reading. My acquaintance with in- 

Sgenious people in the town increased. Keimer himself 
treated me with great civility and apparent regard, and 
nothing now made me uneasy but my debt to Vernon, 
which I was yet unable to pay, being hitherto but a poor 
economist. He, however, kindly made no demand of it. 

10 Our printing-house often wanted sorts, and there was 
no letter- founder in America ; I had seen types cast at 
James's in London, but without much attention to the 
manner ; however, I now contrived a mould, made use of 
the letters we had as puncheons,^ struck the matrices ^ in 

15 lead, and thus supphed in a pretty tolerable way all defi- 
ciencies. I also engraved several things on occasion ; I 
made the ink ; I was warehouseman, and everything, and, 
in short, quite a factotum.^ 

But, however serviceable I might be, I found that my 

20 services became every day of less importance, as the 
other hands improved in the business ; and, when Keimer 
paid my second quarter's wages, he let me know that he 
felt them too heavy, and thought I should make an abate- 
ment. He grew by degrees less civil, put on more of the 

25 master, frequently found fault, was captious, and seemed 
ready for an outbreaking. I went on, nevertheless, with 
a good deal of patience, thinking that his encumbered 
circumstances were partly the cause. At length a trifle 

1 Stamping tools — punchers. ^ Moulds. 

2 General utility man : Jack of all trades. 



Franklin's Autobiography 115 

snapped our connections; for, a great noise happening near 
the court-house, I put my head out of the window to see 
what was the matter. Keimer, being in the street, looked 
up and saw me, called out to me in a loud voice and 
angry tone to mind my business, adding some reproach- 5 
ful words, that nettled me the more for their publicity, all 
the neighbours who were looking out on the same occasion 
being witnesses how I was treated. He came up imme- 
diately into the printing-house, continued the quarrel, 
high words passed on both sides, he gave me the quarter's 10 
warning we had stipulated, expressing a wish that he had 
not been obhged to so long a warning. I told him his 
wish was unnecessary, for I would leave him that in- 
stant ; and so, taking my hat, walked out of doors, desir- 
ing Meredith, whom I saw below, to take care of some 15 
things I left, and bring them to my lodgings. 

Meredith came accordingly in the evening, when we 
talked my affair over. He had conceived a great regard 
for me, and was very unwiUing that I should leave the 
house while he remained in it. He dissuaded me from 20 
returning to my native country, which I began to think 
of; he reminded me that Keimer was in debt for all he 
possessed ; that his creditors began to be uneasy ; that 
he kept his shop miserably, sold often without profit for 
ready money, and often trusted without keeping accounts -, 25 
that he must therefore fail, which would make a vacancy 
I might profit of. I objected my want of money. He 
then let me know that his father had a high opinion of 
me, and, from some discourse that had passed between 
them, he was sure would advance money to set us up, if 30 



ii6 Franklin's Autobiography 

I would enter into partnership with him. "My time," 
says he, "will be out with Keimer in the spring; by that 
time we may have our press and types in from London. 
I am sensible I am no workman ; if you like it, your skill 

sin the business shall be set against the stock I furnish, 
and we will share the profits equally." 

The proposal was agreeable, and I consented; his 
father was in town and approved of it ; the more as he 
saw I had great influence with his son, had prevailed on 

lo him to abstain long from dram drinking, and he hoped 
might break him off that wretched habit entirely, when 
we came to be so closely connected. I gave an inventory 
to the father, who carried it to a merchant ; the things 
were sent for, the secret was to be kept till they should 

15 arrive, and in the meantime I was to get work, if I could, 
at the other printing-house. But I found no vacancy there, 
and so remained idle a few days, when Keimer, on a pros- 
pect of being employed to print some paper money in 
New Jersey, which would require cuts and various types 

20 that I only could supply, and apprehending Bradford 
might engage me and get the job from him, sent me a 
very civil message, that old friends should not part for 
a few words, the effect of sudden passion, and wishing 
me to return. Meredith persuaded me to comply, as it 

25 would give more opportunity for his improvement under 
my daily instructions ; so I returned, and we went on more 
smoothly than for some time before. The New Jersey 
job was obtained, I contrived a copperplate press for it, 
the first that had been seen in the country ; I cut several 

30 ornaments and checks for the bills. We went together 



Franklin's Autobiography 117 

to Burlington, where I executed the whole to satisfaction ; 
and he received so large a sum for the work as to be 
enabled thereby to keep his head much longer above 
water. 

At Burlington I made an acquaintance with many 5 
principal people of the province. Several of them had 
been appointed by the Assembly a committee to attend 
the press, and take care that no more bills were printed 
than the law directed. They were therefore, by turns, 
constantly with us, and generally he who attended, 10 
brought with him a friend or two for company. My 
mind having been much more improved by reading than 
Keimer's, I suppose it was for that reason my conversation 
seemed to be more valued. They had me to their houses, 
introduced me to their friends, and showed me much 15 
civility; while he, though the master, was a little neglected. 
In truth, he was an odd fish ; ignorant of common life, 
fond of rudely opposing received opinions, slovenly to 
extreme dirtiness, enthusiastic in some points of religion, 
and a little knavish withal. - * 20 

We continued there near three months ; and by that 
time I could reckon among my acquired friends, Judge 
Allen, Samuel Bustill, the secretary of the Province, Isaac 
Pearson, Joseph Cooper, and several of the Smiths, 
members of Assembly, and Isaac Decow, the surveyor- 25 
general. The latter was a shrewd, sagacious old man, 
who told me that he began for himself, when young, by 
wheeHng clay for the brickmakers, learned to write after 
he was of age, carried the chain for surveyors, who taught 
him surveying, and he had now by his industry, acquired 30 



ii8 Franklin's Autobiography 

a good estate ; and says he, '^ I foresee that you will soon 
work this man out of his business, and make a fortune in 
it at Philadelphia." He had not then the least intima- 
tion of my intention to set up there or anywhere. These 

5 friends were afterwards of great use to me, as I occasion- 
ally was to some of them. They all continued their 
regard for me as long as they lived. 

Before I enter upon my public appearance in business, 
it may be well to let you know the then state of my mind 

10 with regard to my principles and morals, that you may 
see how far those influenced the future events of my Hfe. 
My parents had early given me religious impressions, and 
brought me through my childhood piously in the Dissent- 
ing way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting 

15 by turns of several points, as I found them disputed in 
the different books I read, I began to doubt of Revelation 
itself. Some books against Deism fell irUo my hands ; 
they were said to be the substance of sermons preached 
at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought an 

20 effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by 
them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted 
to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the 
refutations ; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist. 
My arguments perverted some others, particularly Collins 

25 and Ralph ; but, each of them having afterwards wronged 
me greatly without the least compunction, and recollect- 
ing Keith's conduct towards me (who was another free- 
thinker), and my own towards Vernon and Miss Read, 
which at times gave me great trouble, I began to suspect 

30 that this doctrine, though it might be true, was not very 



Franklin's Autobiography 119 

useful. My London pamphlet^ which had for its motto 
these Hnes of Dryden : 

" Whatever is, is right. Though purbhnd man 
Sees but a part o' the chain, the nearest hnk : 
His eyes not carrying to the equal beam, 5 

That poises all above ;" 

and from the attributes of God, his infinite wisdom, good- 
ness and power, concluded that nothing could possibly be 
wrong in the world, and that vice and virtue were empty 
distinctions, no such things existing, appeared now not 10 
so clever a performance as I once thought it; and I 
doubted whether some error had not insinuated itself 
unperceived into my argument, so as to infect all that 
followed, as is common in metaphysical reasonings. 

I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in 15 
deaUngs between man and man were of the utmost im- 
portance to the felicity of life ; and I formed written 
resolutions, which still remain in my journal book, to 
practise them ever while I lived. Revelation had indeed 
no weight with me, as such ; but I entertained an opinion 20 
that, though certain actions might not be bad because 
they were forbidden by it, or good because it commanded 
them, yet probably these actions might be forbidden 
because they were bad for us, or commanded because they 
were beneficial to us, in their own natures, all the circum- 25 
stances of things considered. And this persuasion, with 
the kind hand of Providence, or some guardian angel, or 
accidental favourable circumstances and situations, or all 
together, preserved me, through this dangerous time of 
youth, and the hazardous situations I was sometimes in 30 



I20 Franklin's Autobiography 

among strangers, remote from the eye and advice of my 
father, without any willful gross immorality or injustice, 
that might have been expected from my want of religion. 
I say willful, because the instances I have mentioned had 

5 something of necessity in them, from my youth, inexperi- 
ence, and the knavery of others. I had therefore a 
tolerable character to begin the world with; I valued it 
properly, and determined to preserve it. 

We had not been long returned to Philadelphia before 

lo the new types arrived from London. We settled with 
Keimer, and left him by his consent before he heard of it. 
We found a house to hire near the market, and took it. 
To lessen the rent, which was then but twenty-four 
pounds a year, though I have since known it to let for 

15 seventy, we took in Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, and his 
family, who were to pay a considerable part of it to us, 
and we to board with them. We had scarce opened our 
letters and put our press in order, before George House, 
an acquaintance of mine, brought a countryman to us, 

20 whom he had met in the street inquiring for a printer. 
All our cash was now expended in the variety of particu- 
lars we had been obliged to procure, and this country- 
man's five shillings, being our first-fruits, and coming so 
seasonably, gave me more pleasure than any crown I have 

25 since earned ; and the gratitude I felt toward House has 
made me often more ready than perhaps I should other- 
wise have been to assist young beginners. 

There are croakers in every country, always boding its 
ruin. Such a one then lived in Philadelphia ; a person 

30 of note, an elderly man, with a wise look and a very 



Franklin's Autobiography 



121 



grave manner of speaking ; his name was Samuel Mickle. 
Tliis gentleman, a stranger to me, stopped one day at my 
door, and asked me if I was the young man who had 
lately opened a new printing-house. Being answered in 
the affirmative, he said he was sorry for me, because its 
was an expensive undertaking, and the expense would be 
lost ; for Philadelphia was a sinking place, the people 
already half- bankrupts, or near being so ; all appearances 
to the contrary, such as new buildings and the rise of 
rents, being to his certain knowledge fallacious ; for they lo 
were, in fact, among the things that would soon ruin us. 
And he gave me such a detail of misfortunes now existing, 
or that were soon to exist, that he left me half melancholy. 
Had I known him before I engaged in this business, 
probably I never should have done it. This man con- 15 
tinued to live in this decaying place, and to declaim in 
the same strain, refusing for many years to buy a house 
there, because all was going to destruction ; and at last I 
had the pleasure of seeing him give five times as much for 
one as he might have bought it for when he first began 20 
his croaking. 

I should have mentioned before, that, in the autumn of 
the preceding year, I had formed most of my ingenious 
acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement, which 
we called the Junto ; we met on Friday evenings. The 25 
rules that I drew up required that every member, in his 
turn, should produce one or more queries on any point 
of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discussed 
by the company ; and once in three months produce and 
read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he 30 



122 Franklin's Autobiography 

pleased. Our debates were to be under the direction of 
a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of 
inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire 
of victory; and, to prevent warmth, all expressions of 
5 positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were 
after some time made contraband, and prohibited under 
small pecuniary penalties. 

The first members were Joseph Breintnal, a copyer of 
deeds for the scriveners, a good-natured, friendly middle- 

loaged man, a great lover of poetry, reading all he could 
meet with, and writing some that was tolerable ; very 
ingenious in many little Nicknackeries, and of sensible 
conversation. 

Thomas Godfrey, a self-taught mathematician, great in 

15 his way, and afterwards inventor of what is now called 
Hadley's Quadrant. But he knew little out of his way, 
and was not a pleasing companion ; as like most great 
mathematicians I have met with, he expected universal 
precision in everything said, or was forever denying or 

20 distinguishing upon trifles, to the disturbance of all con- 
versation. He soon left us. 

Nicholas Scull, a surveyor, afterwards surveyor-general, 
who loved books, and sometimes made a few verses. 
WilHam Parsons, bred a shoemaker, but, loving read- 

25 ing, had acquired a considerable share of mathematics, 
which he first studied with a view to astrology, that he 
afterwards laughed at it. He also became surveyor- 
general. 

William Maugridge, a joiner, a most exquisite mechanic, 

30 and a solid, sensible man. 



Franklin's Autobiography 123 

Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts and George Webb I 
have characterized before. 

Robert Grace, a young gentleman of some fortune, 
generous, Hvely, and witty ; a lover of punning and of 
his friends. S 

And WiUiam Coleman, then a merchant's clerk, about 
my age, who had the coolest, clearest head, the best 
heart, and the exactest morals of almost any man I ever 
met with. He became afterwards a merchant of great 
note, and one of our provincial judges. Our friendship 10 
continued without interruption to his death, upwards of 
forty years ; and the club continued almost as long, and 
was the best school of philosophy, morality, and poHtics 
that then existed in the province ; for our queries, which 
were read the week preceding their discussion, put us 15 
upon reading with attention upon the several subjects, 
that we might speak more to the purpose ; and here, too, 
we acquired better habits of conversation, everything 
being studied in our rules which might prevent our dis- 
gusting each other. From hence the long continuance of 20 
the club, which I shall have frequent occasion to speak 
further of hereafter. 

But my giving this account of it here is to show some- 
thing of the interest I had, every one of these exerting 
themselves in recommending business to us. Breintnal 25 
particularly procured us from the Quakers the printing 
forty sheets of their history, the rest being to be done by 
Keimer ; and upon this we worked exceedingly hard, for 
the price was low. It was a folio, pro patria size, in pica, 
with long primer notes. I composed of it a sheet a day, 30 



124 Franklin's Autobiography 

and Meredith worked it off at press ; it was often eleven at 
night, and sometimes later, before I had finished my dis- 
tribution for the next day's work, for the Httle jobs sent in 
by our other friends now and then put us back. But so 
5 determined I was to continue doing a sheet a day of the 
folio, that one night, when, having imposed ^ my forms, 
I thought my day's work over, one of them by accident 
was broken, and two pages reduced to pi,^ I immediately 
distributed and composed it over again before I went to 

lo bed ; and this industry, visible to our neighbours, began 
to give us character and credit ; particularly, I was told, 
that mention being made of the new printing-office at the 
merchants' Every-night club, the general opinion was 
that it must fail, there being already two printers in the 

15 place, Keimer and Bradford ; but Dr. Baird (whom you 
and I saw many years after at his native place, St. An- 
drew's in Scotland) gave a contrary opinion : " For the 
industry of that Frankhn," says he, " is superior to any- 
thing I ever saw of the kind ; I see him still at work 

20 when I go home from club, and he is at work again be- 
fore his neighbours are out of bed." This struck the rest, 
and we soon after had offers from one of them to supply 
us with stationery ; but as yet we did not choose to engage 
in shop business. 

25 I mention this industry the more particularly and the 
more freely, though it seems to be talking in my own praise, 
that those of my posterity, who shall read it, may know 
the use of that virtue, when they see its effects in my 
favour throughout this relation. 

^ Set up in order for printing. ^ Disorder. 



Franklin's Autobiography 125 

George Webb, who had found a female friend that lent him 
wherewith to purchase his time of Keimer, now came to 
offer himself as a journeyman to us. We could not then 
employ him ; but I foolishly let him know as a secret 
that I soon intended to begin a newspaper, and might 5 
then have work for him. My hopes of success, as I told 
him, were founded on this, that the then only newspaper, 
printed by Bradford, was a paltry thing, wretchedly 
managed, no way entertaining, and yet was profitable to 
him ; I therefore thought a good paper would scarcely 10 
fail of good encouragement. I requested Webb not to 
mention it ; but he told it to Keimer, who immediately, 
to be beforehand with me, published proposals for print- 
ing one himself, on which Webb was to be employed. I 
resented this ; and, to counteract them, as I could not 15 
yet begin our paper, I wrote several pieces of entertain- 
ment for Bradford's paper, under the title of the Busy 
Body, which Breintnal continued some months. By 
this means the attention of the pubhc was fixed on that 
paper, and Keimer's proposals, which we burlesqued and 20 
ridiculed, were disregarded. He began his paper, how- 
ever, and, after carrying it on three quarters of a year, 
with at most only ninety subscribers, he offered it to me 
for a trifle ; and I, having been ready some time to go 
on with it, took it in hand directly j and it proved in a 25 
few years extremely profitable to me. 

I perceive that I am apt to speak in the singular num- 
ber, though our partnership still continued; the reason may 
be that, in fact, the whole management of the business 
lay upon me. Meredith was no compositor, a poor press- 30 



126 Franklin's Autobiography 

man, and seldom sober. My friends lamented my con- 
nexion with him, but I was to make the best of it. 

Our first papers made a quite different appearance from 
any before in the province ; a better type, and better 

5 printed ; but some spirited remarks of my writing, on the 
dispute then going on between Governor Burnet and the 
Massachussets Assembly, struck the principal people, oc- 
casioned the paper and the manager of it to be much talked 
of, and in a few weeks brought them all to be our sub- 

lo scribers. 

Their example was followed by many, and our number 
went on growing continually. This was one of the first 
good effects of my having learned a little to scribble ; an- 
other was, that the leading men, seeing a newspaper now 

15 in the hands of one who could also handle a pen, thought it 
convenient to oblige and encourage me. Bradford still 
printed the votes, and laws, and other pubHc business. 
He had printed an address of the House to the governor, 
in a coarse, blundering manner ; we reprinted it elegantly 

20 and correctly, and sent one to every member. They 
were sensible of the difference : it strengthened the hands 
of our friends in the House^ and they voted us their print- 
ers for the year ensuing. 

Among my friends in the House I must not forget 

25 Mr. Hamilton, before mentioned, who was then returned 
from England, and had a seat in it. He interested 
himself for me strongly in that instance, as he did in 
many others afterward, continuing his patronage till his 
death. ^ 

1 1 got his son once ;£'500 [marg. note]. 



Franklin's Autobiography 127 

Mr. Vernon, about this time, put me in mind of the 
debt I owed him, but did not press me. I wrote him an 
ingenuous letter of acknowledgment, craved his forbear- 
ance a little longer, which he allowed me, and as soon as 
I was able, I paid the principal with interest, and many 5 
thanks ; so that erratum was in some degree corrected. 

But now another difficulty came upon me which I had 
never the least reason to expect. Mr. Meredith's father, 
who was to have paid for our printing-house, according 
to the expectations given me, was able to advance only 10 
one hundred pounds currency, which had been paid ; 
and a hundred more was due to the merchant, who grew 
impatient, and sued us all. We gave baiV but saw that, 
if the money could not be raised in time, the suit must 
soon come to a judgement and execution, and our hope- 15 
ful prospects must, with us, be ruined, as the press and 
letters must be sold for payment, perhaps at half price. 

In this distress two true friends, whose kindness I 
have never forgotten nor ever shall forget while I can 
remember anything, came to me separately, unknown to 20 
each other, and, without any application from me, offer- 
ing each of them to advance me all the money that should 
be necessary to enable me to take the whole business upon 
myself, if that should be practicable; but they did not 
like my continuing the partnership with Meredith, who, 25 
as they said, was often seen drunk in the streets, and 
playing at low games in alehouses, much to our discredit. 
These two friends were William Coleman and Robert 
Grace. I told them I could not propose a separation 
1 Security. 



128 Franklin's Autobiography 

while any prospect remained of the Merediths' fulfilling 
their part of our agreement, because I thought myself 

• under great obligations to them for what they had done, 
and would do if they could ; but, if they finally failed in 

5 their performance, and our partnership must be dissolved, 
I should then think myself at liberty to accept the assist- 
ance of my friends. 

Thus the matter rested for some time, when I said 
to my partner, '^ Perhaps your father is dissatisfied at the 

lo part you have undertaken in this affair of ours, and is un- 
willing to advance for you and me what he would for you 
alone. If that is the case, tell me, and I will resign the 
whole to you, and go about my business." " No," said 
he, ^' my father has really been disappointed, and is really 

15 unable ; and I am unwilling to distress him farther. I see 
this is a business I am not fit for. I was bred a farmer, 
and it was a folly in me to come to town, and put myself, 
at thirty years of age, an apprentice to learn a new trade. 
Many of our Welsh people are going to settle in North 

20 Carolina, where land is cheap. I am inclined to go with 
them, and follow my old employment. You may find 
friends to assist you. If you will take the debts of the 
company upon you ; return to my father the hundred 
pounds he has advanced ; pay my Httle personal debts, 

25 and give me thirty pounds and a new saddle, I will re- 
linquish the partnership, and leave the whole in your 
hands." I agreed to this proposal : it was drawn up in 
writing, signed, and sealed immediately. I gave him 
what he demanded, and he went soon after to Carolina, 

30 from whence he sent me next year two long letters, con- 



Franklin's Autobiography 129 

taining the best account that had been given of that coun- 
try, the cHmate, the soil, husbandry, etc., for in those 
matters he was very judicious. I printed them in the 
papers, and they gave great satisfaction to the pubUc. 

As soon as he was gone, I recurred to my two friends ; 5 
and because I would not give an unkind preference to 
either, I took half of what each had offered and I wanted 
of one, and half of the other ; paid off the company's debts, 
and went on with the business in my own name, advertis- 
ing that the partnership was dissolved. I think this was 10 
in or about the year 1729. 

About this time there was a cry among the people for 
more paper money, only fifteen thousand pounds being 
extant in the province, and that soon to be sunk. The 
wealthy inhabitants opposed any addition, being against 15 
all paper currency, from an apprehension that it would 
depreciate, as it had done in New England, to the pre- 
judice of all creditors. We had discussed this point in 
our Junto, where I was on the side of an addition, being 
persuaded that the first small sum struck in 1723 had 20 
done much good by increasing the trade, employment, 
and number of inhabitants in the province, since I now 
saw all the old houses inhabited, and many new ones 
building : whereas I remembered well, that when I first 
walked about the streets of Philadelphia, eating my roll, 25 
I saw most of the houses in Walnut street, between 
Second and Front streets, with bills on their doors, '^ To 
be let" ; and many likewise in Chestnut street and other 
streets, which made me then think the inhabitants of the 
city were deserting it one after another. 30 

franklin's autobiography — 9 



130 Franklin's Autobiography 

Our debates possessed me so fully of the subject, that 
I wrote and printed an anonymous pamphlet on it, 
entitled The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Cur- 
rency, It was well received by the common people in 
5 general ; but the rich men disliked it, for it increased and 
strengthened the clamour for more money, and they 
happening to have no writers among them that were able 
to answer it, their opposition slackened, and the point 
was carried by a majority in the House. My friends 

10 there, who conceived I had been of some service, thought 

fit to reward me by employing me in printing the money ; 

a very profitable job and a great help to me. This was 

another advantage gained by my being able to write. 

The utility of this currency became by time and expe- 

isrience so evident as never afterwards to be much dis- 
puted ; so that it grew soon to fifty-five thousand pounds, 
and in 1739 to eighty thousand pounds, since which it 
arose during war to upwards of three hundred and fifty 
thousand pounds, trade, building, and inhabitants all the 

20 while increasing, though I now think there are limits 
beyond which the quantity may be hurtful. 

I soon after obtained, through my friend Hamilton, the 
printing of the Newcastle paper money, another profit- 
able job as I then thought it; small things appearing 

25 great to those in small circumstances ; and these, to me, 
were really great advantages, as they were great encour- 
agements. He procured for me, also, the printing of 
the laws and votes of that government, which continued 
in my hands as long as I followed the business. 

30 I now opened a httle stationer's shop. I had in it 



Franklin's Autobiography 131 

blanks^ of all sorts, the correctest that ever appeared 
among us, being assisted in that by my friend Breintnal. 
I had also paper, parchment, chapmen's books, etc. 
One Whitemarsh, a compositor I had known in London, 
an excellent workman, now came to me, and worked with 5 
me constantly and diligently ; and I took an apprentice, 
the son of Aquila Rose. 

I began now gradually to pay off the debt I was under 
for the printing-house. In order to secure my credit and 
character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be in 10 
reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances 
to the contrary. I dressed plainly; I was seen at no places 
of idle diversion. I never went out a fishing or shooting ; 
a book, indeed, sometimes debauched me from my work, 
but that was seldom, snug, and gave no scandal j and, to 15 
show that I was not above my business, I sometimes 
brought home the paper I purchased at the stores through 
the streets on a wheelbarrow. Thus being esteemed an 
industrious, thriving young man, and paying duly for what 
I bought, the merchants w^ho imported stationery sohcited 20 
my custom ; others proposed supplying me with books, 
and I went on swimmingly. In the meantime, Keimer's 
credit and business declining daily, he w^as at last forced to 
sell his printing-house to satisfy his creditors. He went 
to Barbados, and there lived some years in very poor 25 
circumstances. 

His apprentice, David Harry, whom I had instructed 
while I worked with him, set up in his place at Philadel- 
phia, having bought his materials. I was at first appre- 
^ Blank forms for legal papers. 



132 Franklin's Autobiography 

hensive of a powerful rival in Harry, as his friends were 
very able, and had a good deal of interest. I therefore 
proposed a partnership to him, which he, fortunately for 
me, rejected with scorn. He was very proud, dressed Hke 

5 a gentleman, Hved expensively, took much diversion and 
pleasure abroad, ran in debt, and neglected his business ; 
upon which, all business left him ; and, finding nothing 
to do, he followed Keimer to Barbados, taking the 
printing-house with him. There this apprentice employed 

10 his former master as a journeyman ; they quarrelled often ; 
Harry went continually behindhand, and at length was 
forced to sell his types and return to his country work in 
Pennsylvania. The person that bought them employed 
Keimer to use them, but in a few years he died. 

IS There remained now no competitor with me at Phila- 
delphia but the old one, Bradford ; who was rich and 
easy, did a little printing now and then by straggling 
hands, but was not very anxious about the business. 
However, as he kept the post-office, it was imagined he 

20 had better opportunities of obtaining news ; his paper 
was thought a better distributer of advertisements than 
mine, and therefore had many more, which was a profit- 
able thing to him, and a disadvantage to me ; for, though 
I did indeed receive and send papers by the post, 

25 yet the pubhc opinion was otherwise, for what I did 
send was by bribing the riders, who took them privately, 
Bradford being unkind enough to forbid it, which occa- 
sioned some resentment on my part ; and I thought so 
meanly of him for it, that, when I afterward came into 

30 his situation, I took care never to imitate it. 



Franklin's Autobiography 133 

I had hitherto continued to board with Godfrey, who 

Hved in part of my house with his wife and children, and 
had one side of the shop for his glazier's business, though 
he worked little, being always absorbed in his mathematics. 
Mrs. Godfrey projected a match for me with a relation's 5 
daughter, took opportunities of bringing us often together, 
till a serious courtship on my part ensued, the girl being 
in herself very desen^ing. The old folks encouraged me 
by continual invitations to supper, and by leaving us to- 
gether, till at length it w^as time to explain. Mrs. Godfrey 10 
managed our little treaty. I let her know that I expected 
as much money with their daughter as would pay off my 
remaining debt for the printing-house, which I beheve 
was not then above a hundred pounds. She brought me 
word they had no such sum to spare; I said they might 15 
mortgage their house in the loan-office. The answer to 
this, after some days, was, that they did not approve the 
match ; that, on inquiry of Bradford, they had been in- 
formed the printing business was not a profitable one ; 
the types would soon be worn out, and more wanted ; 20 
that S. Keimer and D. Harry had failed one after the 
other, and I should probably soon follow them ; and, 
therefore, I was forbidden the house, and the daughter 
shut up. 

Whether this was a real change of sentiment or only 25 
artifice, on a supposition of our being too far engaged in 
affection to retract, and therefore that we should steal a 
marriage, which would leave them at liberty to give or 
withhold what they pleased, I know not ; but I suspected 
the latter, resented it, and went no more. Mrs. Godfrey 30 



134 Franklin's Autobiography 

brought me afterward some more favourable accounts of 
their disposition, and would have drawn me on again ; 
but I declared absolutely my resolution to have nothing 
more to do with that family. This was resented by the 

5 Godfreys ; we differed, and they removed, leaving me the 
whole house, and I resolved to take no more inmates. 

But this affair having turned my thoughts to marriage, 
I looked round me and made overtures of acquaintance in 
other places ; but soon found that, the business of a 

lo printer being generally thought a poor one, I was not to 
expect money with a wife, unless with such a one as I 
should not otherwise think agreeable. A friendly corre- 
spondence as neighbours and old acquaintances had con- 
tinued between me and Mrs. Read's family, who all had a 

15 regard for me from the time of my first lodging in their 
house. I was often invited there and consulted in their 
affairs, wherein I sometimes was of service. I pitied 
poor Miss Read's unfortunate situation, who was gen- 
erally dejected, seldom cheerful, and avoided company. 

20 I considered my giddiness and inconstancy when in Lon- 
don as in a great degree the cause of her unhappiness, 
though the mother was good enough to think the fault 
more her own than mine, as she had prevented our 
marrying before I went thither, and persuaded the other 

25 match in my absence. Our mutual affection was revived, 
but there were now great objections to our union. The 
match was indeed looked upon as invahd, a preceding 
wife being said to be living in England ; but this could not 
easily be proved, because of the distance ; and, though 

30 there was a report of his death, it was not certain. Then, 



Franklin's Autobiography 135 

though it should be true, he had left many debts, which 
his successor might be called upon to pay. We ventured, 
however, over all these difficulties, and I took her to wife 
September ist, 1730. None of the inconveniences hap- 
pened that we had apprehended; she proved a goods 
and faithful helpmate, assisted me much by attending the 
shop ; we throve together, and have ever mutually en- 
deavoured to make each other happy. Thus I corrected 
that great erj^atiim as well as I could. 

About this time, our club meeting, not at a tavern, but 10 
in a little room of Mr. Grace's, set apart for that purpose, 
a proposition was made by me, that, since our books 
were often referred to in our disquisitions upon the 
queries, it might be convenient to us to have them alto- 
gether where we met, that upon occasion they might be 15 
consulted ; and by thus clubbing our books to a common 
Hbrary, we should, while we liked to keep them together, 
have each of us the advantage of using the books of all 
the other members, which would be nearly as beneficial 
as if each owned the whole. It was liked and agreed to, 20 
and we filled one end of the room with such books as we 
could best spare. The number was not so great as we 
expected ; and though they had been of great use, yet 
some inconveniences occurring for want of due care of 
them, the collection, after about a year, was separated, 25 
and each took his books home again. 

And now I set on foot my first project of a pubHc 
nature, that for a subscription library. I drew up the 
proposals, got them put into form by our great scrivener, 
Brockden, and, by the help of my friends in the Junto, 30 



136 Franklin's Autobiography 

procured fifty subscribers of forty shillings each to begin 
with, and ten shilHngs a year for fifty years, the term our 
company was to continue. We afterwards obtained a 
charter, the company being increased to one hundred : 

5 this was the mother of all the North American subscrip- 
tion libraries, now so numerous. It is become a great 
thing itself, and continually increasing. These hbraries 
have improved the general conversation of the Americans, 
made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent 

10 as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps 
have contributed in some degree to the stand so gen- 
erally made throughout the colonies in defence of their 
privileges. 

Mem"], Thus far was written with the intention ex- 

15 pressed in the beginning and therefore contains several 
little family anecdotes of no importance to others. What 
follows was written many years after in compliance with 
the advice contained in these letters, and accordingly 
intended for the pubhc. The affairs of the Revolution 

20 occasioned the interruption. 

Letter from Mr, Abel James, with Notes of my Life 
{received i?i Paris) . 

" My Dear and Honoured Friend : I have often been 
desirous of writing to thee, but could not be reconciled to 
25 the thought, that the letter might fall into the hands of 
the British, lest some printer or busybody should pub- 
fish some part of the contents, and give our friend pain, 
and myself censure." 



Franklin's Autobiography 137 

" Some time since there fell into my hands, to my 
great joy, about twenty-three sheets in thy own hand- 
writing, containing an account of the parentage and hfe 
of thyself, directed to thy son, ending in the year 1730, 
with which there were notes, hkewise in thy writing ; a 5 
copy of which I enclose, in hopes it may be a means, if 
thou continued it up to a later period, that the first and 
latter part may be put together; and if it is not yet con- 
tinued, I hope thee will not delay it. Life is uncertain, 
as the preacher tells us ; and what will the world say if 10 
kind, humane, and benevolent Ben. Franklin should 
leave his friends and the world deprived of so pleasing 
and profitable a work ; a work which would be useful and 
entertaining not only to a few, but to millions? The 
influence writings under that class have on the minds of 15 
youth is very great, and has nowhere appeared to me so 
plain, as in our pubHc friend's journals. It almost in- 
sensibly leads the youth into the resolution of endeavour- 
ing to become as good and eminent as the journalist. 
Should thine, for instance, when pubhshed (and I think 20 
it could not fail of it), lead the youth to equal the in- 
dustry and temperance of thy early youth, what a bless- 
ing with that class would such a work be ! I know of no 
character living, nor many of them put together, who has 
so much in his power as thyself to promote a greater 25 
spirit of industry and early attention to business, frugahty, 
and temperance with the American youth. Not that I 
think the work would have no other merit and use in the 
world, far from it ; but the first is of such vast importance 
that I know nothing that can equal it." 30 



138 Franklin's Autobiography 

The foregoing letter and the minutes accompanying it 
being shown to a friend, I received from him the fol- 
lowing : 

Letter from Mr, Benjamin Vaughan, 

5 " Paris, y(3;;2^/^rjj/ 31, 1783. 

" My Dearest Sir : When I had read over your 
sheets of minutes of the principal incidents of your life, 
recovered for you by your Quaker acquaintance, I told 
you I would send you a letter expressing my reasons why 

10 I thought it would be useful to complete and publish 
it as he desired. Various concerns have for some time 
past prevented this letter being written, and I do not 
know whether it was worth any expectation ; happening 
to be at leisure, however, at present, I shall by writing, at 

IS least interest and instruct myself; but as the terms I am 
inclined to use may tend to offend a person of your man- 
ners, I shall only tell you how I would address any other 
person, who was as good and as great as yourself, but 
less diffident. I would say to him, Sir, I sohcit the his- 

20 tory of your life from the following motives : Your history 
is so remarkable, that if you do not give it, somebody else 
will certainly give it ; and perhaps so as nearly to do as 
much harm, as your own management of the thing might do 
good. It will moreover present a table of the internal 

25 circumstances of your country, which will very much tend 
to invite to it settlers of virtuous and manly minds. And 
considering the eagerness with which such information is 
sought by them, and the extent of your reputation, I do 



Franklin's Autobiography 139 

not know of a more efficacious advertisement than your 
biography would give. All that has happened to you is 
also connected with the detail of the manners and situa- 
tion of a rising people ; and in this respect I do not think 
that the writings of Caesar and Tacitus can be more in- 5 
teresting to a true judge of human nature and society. 
But these, sir, are small reasons, in my opinion, compared 
with the chance which your life will give for the forming 
of future great men ; and in conjunction with your Art 
of Virtue (which you design to pubhsh) of improving the 10 
features of private character, and consequently of aiding 
all happiness, both pubhc and domestic. The two works 
I allude to, sir, will in particular give a noble rule and ex- 
ample of self-education. School and other education con- 
stantly proceed upon false principles, and show a clumsy 15 
apparatus pointed at a false mark ; but your apparatus is 
simple, and the mark a true one ; and while parents and 
young persons are left destitute of other just means of 
estimating and becoming prepared for a reasonable course 
in life, your discovery that the thing is in many a man's 20 
private power, will be invaluable ! Influence upon the 
private character, late in life, is not only an influence late 
in hfe, but a weak influence. It is in youth that we plant 
our chief habits and prejudices ; it is in youth that we 
take our party as to profession, pursuits and matrimony. 25 
In youth, therefore, the turn is given ; in youth the educa- 
tion even of the next generation is given ; in youth the 
private and public character is determined ; and the term 
of life extending but from youth to age, life ought to 
begin well from youth, and more especially before 30 



140 Franklin's Autobiography 

we take our party as to our principal objects. But 
your biography will not merely teach self- education, but 
the education of a wise man ; and the wisest man 
will receive lights and improve his progress, by seeing 
5 detailed the conduct of another wise man. And why are 
weaker men to be deprived of such helps, when we see 
our race has been blundering on in the dark, almost with- 
out a guide in this particular, from the farthest trace of 
time? Show then, sir, how much is to be done, 

10 both to sons and fathers ; and invite all wise men to 
become like yourself, and other men to become wise. 
When we see how cruel statesmen and warriors can be to 
the human race, and how absurd distinguished men can 
be to their acquaintance, it will be instructive to observe 

15 the instances multiply of pacific, acquiescing manners ; 
and to find how compatible it is to be great and domes- 
tic, enviable and yet good-humoured. 

" The little private incidents which you will also have 
to relate, will have considerable use, as we want, above 

20 all things, rules of prudence in ordinary affairs ; and it 
will be curious to see how you have acted in these. It 
will be so far a sort of key to life, and explain many things 
that all men ought to have once explained to them, to 
give them a chance of becoming wise by foresight. The 

25 nearest thing to having experience of one's own, is to have 
other people's affairs brought before us in a shape that is 
interesting ; this is sure to happen from your pen ; our 
affairs and management will have an air of simplicity or 
importance that will not fail to strike ; and I am convinced 

30 you have conducted them with as much originality as if 



Franklin's Autobiography 141 

you had been conducting discussions in politics or phi- 
losophy ; and what more worthy of experiments and 
system (its importance and its errors considered) than 
human life ? 

" Some men have been virtuous blindly, others have 5 
speculated fantastically, and others have been shrewd to 
bad purposes ; but you, sir, I am sure, will give under 
your hand, nothing but what is at the same moment, wise, 
practical and good. Your account of yourself (for I sup- 
pose the parallel I am drawing for Dr. Franklin, will hold 10 
not only in point of character, but of private history) will 
show that you are ashamed of no origin ; a thing the 
more important, as you prove how Httle necessary all 
origin is to happiness, virtue, or greatness. As no end 
likewise happens without a means, so we shall find, sir, 15 
that even you yourself framed a plan by which you be- 
came considerable ; but at the same time we may see 
that though the event is flattering, the means are as 
simple as wisdom could make them ; that is, depending 
upon nature, virtue, thought and habit. Another thing 20 
demonstrated will be the propriety of every man's waiting 
for his time for appearing upon the stage of the world. 
Our sensations being very much fixed to the moment, we 
are apt to forget that more moments are to follow the 
first, and consequently that man should arrange his con- 25 
duct so as to suit the whole of a life. Your attribution 
appears to have been applied to your life, and the pass- 
ing moments of it have been enlivened with content and 
enjoyment, instead of being tormented with foolish im- 
patience or regrets. Such a conduct is easy for those 30 



142 Fianklin's Autobiography 

who make virtue and themselves in countenance by ex- 
amples of other truly great men, of whom patience is so 
often the characteristic. Your Quaker correspondent, sir, 
(for here again I will suppose the subject of my letter 
5 resembling Dr. Franklin), praised your frugahty, diligence 
and temperance, which he considered as a pattern for all 
youth; but it is singular that he should have forgotten 
your modesty and your disinterestedness, without which 
you never could have waited for your advancement, or 

10 found your situation in the meantime comfortable; 
which is a strong lesson to show the poverty of glory 
and the importance of regulating our minds. If this 
correspondent had known the nature of your reputation 
as well as I do, he would have said. Your former writings 

15 and measures would secure attention to your Biography, 
and Art of Virtue ; and your Biography and Art of Virtue, 
in return, would secure attention to them. This is an ad- 
vantage attendant upon a various character, and which 
brings all that belongs to it into greater play; and it is 

20 the more useful, as perhaps more persons are at a loss 
for the means of improving their minds and characters, 
than they are for the time or the inclination to do it. 
But there is one concluding reflection, sir, that will show 
the use of your hfe as a mere piece of biography. This 

25 style of writing seems a little gone out of vogue, and yet 
it is a very useful one ; and your specimen of it may be 
particularly serviceable, as it will make a subject of com- 
parison with the lives of various public cut-throats and 
intriguers, and with absurd monastic self- tormentors or 

30 vain Hterary triflers. If it encourages more writings of 



Franklin's Autobiography 143 

the same kind with your own, and induces more men to 
spend Hves fit to be written, it will be worth all Plutarch's 
Lives put together. But being tired of figuring to myself 
a character of which every feature suits only one man in 
the world, without giving him the praise of it, I shall end 5 
my letter, my dear Dr. Franklin, with a personal applica- 
tion to your proper self. I am earnestly desirous, then, 
my dear sir, that you should let the world into the traits 
of your genuine character, as civil broils may otherwise 
tend to disguise or traduce it. Considering your great 10 
age, the caution of your character, and your pecuHar 
style of thinking, it is not likely that any one besides 
yourself can be sufficiently master of the facts of your 
life, or the intentions of your mind. Besides all this, the 
immense revolution of the present period, will necessarily 15 
turn our attention towards the author of it, and when 
virtuous principles have been pretended in it, it will be 
highly important to show that such have really influenced ; 
and, as your own character will be the principal one to 
receive a scrutiny, it is proper (even for its effects upon 20 
your vast and rising country, as well as upon England and 
upon Europe) that it should stand respectable and eter- 
nal. For the furtherance of human happiness, I have 
always maintained that it is necessary to prove that man 
is not even at present a vicious and detestable animal; 25 
and still more to prove that good management may 
greatly amend him ; and it is for much the same reason 
that I am anxious to see the opinion established, that 
there are fair characters existing among the individuals 
of the race ; for the moment that all men, without excep- 3° 



144 Franklin's Autobiography 

tion, shall be conceived abandoned, good people will 
cease efforts deemed to be hopeless, and perhaps think 
of taking their share in the scramble of Hfe, or at least 
of making it comfortable principally for themselves. Take 

5 then, my dear sir, this work most speedily into hand : 
show yourself good as you are good ; temperate as you 
are temperate; and above all things, prove yourself as 
one, who from your infancy have loved justice, liberty 
and concord, in a way that has made it natural and con- 

10 sistent for you to have acted, as we have seen you act in 
the last seventeen years of your life. Let Englishmen 
be made not only to respect, but even to love you. 
When they think well of individuals in your native coun- 
try, they will go nearer to thinking well of your country ; 

15 and when your countrymen see themselves well thought 
of by Englishmen, they will go nearer to thinking well 
of England. Extend your views even further; do not 
stop at those who speak the English tongue, but after 
having settled so many points in nature and politics, 

20 think of bettering the whole race of men. As I have 
not read any part of the life in question, but know only 
the character that lived it, I write somewhat at hazard. 
I am sure, however, that the hfe and the treatise I allude 
to (on the Art of Virtue) will necessarily fulfil the chief 

25 of my expectations ; and still more so if you take up the 
measure of suiting these performances to the several views 
above stated. Should they even prove unsuccessful in 
all that a sanguine admirer of yours hopes from them, 
you will at least have framed pieces to interest the 

30 human mind; and whoever gives a feeling of pleasure 



Franklin's Autobiography 145 

that is innocent to man, has added so much to the fair 
side of a Hfe otherwise too much darkened by anxiety 
and too much injured by pain. In the hope, therefore, 
that you will listen to the prayer addressed to you in 
this letter, I beg to subscribe myself, my dearest sir, 5 
etc., etc., 

"Signed, Benj. Vaughan." 



Continuation of the Account of my Life, begun at Passy, 
near Paris, 1784 

It is some time since I received the above letters, but 10 
I have been too busy till now to think of complying with 
the request they contain. It might, too, be much better 
done if I were at home among my papers, which would 
aid my memory, and help to ascertain dates ; but 
my return being uncertain, and having just now a htde 15 
leisure, I will endeavour to recollect and write what I 
can ; if I live to get home, it may there be corrected and 
improved. 

Not having any copy here of what is already written, I 
know not whether an account is given of the means 1 20 
used to estabhsh the Philadelphia pubHc Hbrary, which, 
from a small beginning, is now become so considerable, 
though I remember to have come down to near the time 
of that transaction (1730). I will therefore begin here 
with an account of it, which may be struck out if found 25 
to have been already given. 

At the time I established myself in Pennsylvania, there 
franklin's autobiography — 10 



146 Franklin's Autobiography 

was not a good bookseller's shop in any of the colonies 
to the southward of Boston. In New York and Philadel- 
phia the printers were indeed stationers ; they sold only 
paper, etc., almanacs, ballads, and a few common school- 
5 books. Those who loved reading were obliged to send 
for their books from England ; the members of the 
Junto had each a few. We had left the alehouse, where 
we first met, and hired a room to hold our club in. I pro- 
posed that we should all of us bring our books to that 

10 room, where they would not only be ready to consult in 
our conferences, but become a common benefit, each of 
us being at Hberty to borrow such as he wished to read 
at home. This was accordingly done, and for some 
time contented us. 

15 Finding the advantage of this little collection, I pro- 
posed to render the benefit from books more common, 
by commencing a public subscription library. I drew 
a sketch of the plan and rules that would be necessary, 
and got a skilful conveyancer, Mr. Charles Brockden, 

20 to put the whole in form of articles of agreement to be 
subscribed, by which each subscriber engaged to pay a 
certain sum down for the first purchase of books, and an 
annual contribution for increasing them. So few were 
the readers at that time in Philadelphia, and the 

25 majority of us so poor, that I was not able, with great 
industry, to find more than fifty persons, mostly young 
tradesmen, willing to pay down for this purpose forty 
shillings each, and ten shillings per annum. On this 
Httle fund we began. The books were imported ; the 

30 hbrary was opened one day in the week for lending to 



Franklin's Autobiography 147 

the subscribers, on their promissory notes to pay double 
the vakie if not duly returned. The institution soon 
manifested its utility, was imitated by other towns, and 
in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by 
donations ; reading became fashionable ; and our people, 5 
having no public amusements to divert their attention 
from study, became better acquainted with books, and 
in a few years were observed by strangers to be better 
instructed and more inteUigent than people of the same 
rank generally are in other countries. 10 

When we were about to sign the above-mentioned 
articles, which were to be binding on us, our heirs, etc. 
for fifty years, Mr. Brockden, the scrivener, said to us, 
*' You are young men, but it is scarcely probable that 
any of you will live to see the expiration of the term 15 
fixed in the instrument." A number of us, however, are 
yet living : but the instrument was after a few years 
rendered null by a charter that incorporated and gave 
perpetuity to the company. 

The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting 20 
the subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of 
presenting one's self as the proposer of any useful proj- 
ect, that might be supposed to raise one's reputation in 
the smallest degree above that of one's neighbours, when 
one has need of their assistance to accomplish that 25 
project. I therefore put myself as much as I could out of 
sight, and stated it as a scheme of a ;iu??iber of friends, who 
had requested me to go about and propose it to such as 
they thought lovers of reading. In this way my affair 
went on more smoothly, and I ever after practised it on 30 



148 Franklin's Autobiography 

such occasions; and, from my frequent successes, can 
heartily recommend it. The present Rttle sacrifice of 
your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid. If it re- 
mains a while uncertain to whom the merit belongs, 
5 some one more vain than yourself will be encouraged to 
claim it, and then even envy will be disposed to do you 
justice by plucking those assumed feathers, and restor- 
ing them to their right owner. 

This library afforded me the means of improvement by 

10 constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two each 
day, and thus repaired in some degree the loss of the 
learned education my father once intended for me. 
Reading was the only amusement I allowed myself. I 
spent no time in taverns, games, or frolics of any kind ; 

15 and my industry in my business continued as indefatiga- 
ble as it was necessary. I was indebted for my printing- 
house ; I had a young family coming on to be educated, 
and I had to contend for business with two printers, who 
were estabhshed in the place before me. My circum- 

20 stances, however, grew daily easier. My original habits 
of frugaHty continuing, and my father having, among his 
instructions to me when a boy, frequently repeated a prov- 
erb of Solomon, " Seest thou a man diligent in his call- 
ing, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before 

25 mean men," I from thence considered industry as a means 
of obtaining wealth and distinction, which encouraged me, 
though I did not think that I should ever literally stand 
before kings, which, however, has since happened, for I 
have stood before five, and even had the honour of sit- 

30 ting down with one, the King of Denmark, to dinner. 



Franklin^s Autobiography 149 

We have an English proverb that says, ^^ He that would 
thrive, must ask his wife,''' It was lucky for me that I 
had one as much disposed to industry and frugality as my- 
self. She assisted me cheerfully in my business, folding 
and stitching pamplets, tending shop, purchasing olds 
linen rags for the paper-makers, etc., etc. We kept no 
idle servants, our table was plain and simple, our furni- 
ture of the cheapest. For instance, my breakfast was a 
long time bread and milk (no tea), and I ate it out of a 
twopenny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon. But 10 
mark how luxury will enter famihes, and make a progress, 
in spite of principle : being called one morning to break- 
fast, I found it in a China bowl, with a spoon of silver ! 
They had been bought for me without my knowledge by 
my wife, and had cost her the enormous sum of three-and- 15 
twenty shillings, for which she had no other excuse or 
apology to make, but that she thought he7' husband de- 
served a silver spoon and China bowl as well as any of his 
neighbours. This was the first appearance of plate and 
china in our house,, which afterward, in a course of years, 20 
as our wealth increased, augmented gradually to several 
hundred pounds in value. 

I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian' ; and 
though some of the dogmas of that persuasion, such as the 
eternal decrees of God, election, reprobation, etc., appeared 25 
to me unintelligible, others doubtful, and I early absented 
myself from the public assemblies of the sect, Sunday being 
my studying day, I never was without some religious prin- 
ciples. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of 
the Deity ; that he made the world, and governed it by 30 



150 Franklin's Autobiography 

his Providence ; that the most acceptable service of God 
was the doing good to man ; that our souls are immortal ; 
and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, 
either here or hereafter. These I esteemed the essentials 
5 of every religion ; and, being to be found in all the reli- 
gions we had in our country, I respected them all, though 
with different degrees of respect, as I found them more 
or less mixed with other articles, which, without any ten- 
dency to inspire, promote, or confirm morality, served 

10 principally to divide us, and make us unfriendly to one 
another. This respect to all, with an opinion that the 
worst had some good effects, induced me to avoid all 
discourse that might tend to lessen the good opinion 
another might have of his own religion ; and as our prov- 

15 ince increased in people, and new places of worship were 
continually wanted, and generally erected by voluntary 
contribution, my mite for such purpose, whatever might 
be the sect, was never refused. 

Though I seldom attended any public worship, I had 

20 still an opinion of its propriety, and of its utihty when rightly 
conducted, and I regularly paid my annual subscription for 
the support of the only Presbyterian minister or meeting 
we had in Philadelphia. He used to visit me some- 
times as a friend, and admonish me to attend his admin- 

25 istrations, and I was now and then prevailed on to do so, 
once for five Sundays successively. Had he been in my 
opinion a good preacher, perhaps I might have continued, 
notwithstanding the occasion I had for the Sunday's lei- 
sure in my course of study ; but his discourses were 

30 chiefly either polemic arguments, or explications of the 



Franklin's Autobiography 151 

peculiar doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very 
dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single moral 
principle was inculcated or enforced, their aim seeming 
to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good citizens. 

At length he took for his text that verse of the fourth 5 
chapter of Philippians, '^ Finally, brethren, whatsoever 
things are true, honest, just, pure ^ lovely, or of good report, 
if there be afiy virtue^ or any praise, think on these thi7igsy 
And I imagined, in a sermon on such a text, we could 
not miss of having some moraHty. But he confined him- 10 
self to five points only, as meant by the apostle, viz. : 
I. Keeping holy the Sabbath day. 2. Being diligent in 
reading the holy Scriptures. 3. Attending duly the pub- 
lic worship. 4. Partaking of the Sacrament. 5. Paying 
a due respect to God's ministers. These might be all 15 
good things; but, as they were not the kind of good 
things that I expected from that text, I despaired of ever 
meeting with them from any other, was disgusted, and 
attended his preaching no more. I had some years be- 
fore composed a little Liturgy, or form of prayer, for my 20 
own private use (viz., in 1728), enX\\\td, Articles of Belief 
and Acts of Religion. I returned to the use of this, and 
went no more to the public assembhes. My conduct 
might be blameable, but I leave it, without attempting 
further to excuse it ; my present purpose being to relate 25 
facts, and not to make apologies for them. 

It was about this time I conceived the bold and 
arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished 
to live without committing any fault at any time ; I would 
conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or 30 



152 Franklin's Autobiography 

company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought 
I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I 
might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I 
soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty 
5 than I had imagined. While my care was employed in 
guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by 
another ; habit took the advantage of inattention ; in- 
cUnation was sometimes too strong for reason. I con- 
cluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction 

10 that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was 
not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the con- 
trary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired 
and established, before we can have any dependence on 
a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose 

15 1 therefore contrived the following method. 

In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had 
met with in my reading, I found the catalogue more or 
less numerous, as different writers included more or 
fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for 

20 example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, 
while by others it was extended to mean the moderating 
every other pleasure, appetite, incHnation, or passion, 
bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I 
proposed to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use 

25 rather more names, with fewer ideas annexed to each, than 
a few names with more ideas ; and I concluded under 
thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to 
me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a 
short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to 

30 its meaning. 



Franklin's Autobiography 153 

These names of virtues, with their precepts, were : 

I . Temperance 
Eat not to dullness ; drink not to elevation. 

2. Silence 

Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself j 5 
avoid trifling conversation. 

3. Order 

Let all your things have their places ; let each part of 
your business have its time. 

4. Resolution 10 

Resolve to perform what you ought ; perform without 
fail what you resolve. 

5. Frugality 

Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself, 
/.«?., waste nothing. 15 

6. Industry 

Lose no time ; be always employed in something use- 
ful ; cut off all unnecessary actions. 

7. Sincerity 

Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, 20 
if you speak, speak accordingly. 



154 Franklin's Autobiography 

8. Justice 

Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits 
that are your duty. 

9. Moderation 

5 Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much 
as you think they deserve. 

10. Cleanliness 

Tolerate no uncleanhness in body, clothes, or habitation. 

1 1 . Tranquillity 

10 Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or 
unavoidable. 

12. Chastity 

13. Humility 
Imitate Jesus and Socrates. 

15 My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these 
virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract my at- 
tention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on 
one of them at a time ; and, when I should be master of 
that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should 

20 have gone through the thirteen; and, as the previous ac- 
quisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of 
certain others, I arranged them with that view, as they 
stand above. Temperance first, as it tends to procure 
that coolness and clearness of head, which is so nee- 



Franklin's Autobiography 155 

essary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, 
and guard maintained against the unremitting attraction 
of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations. 
This being acquired and estabhshed, Silence would be 
more easy ; and my desire being to gain knowledge at 5 
the same time that I improved in virtue, and considering 
that in conversation it was obtained rather by the use of 
the ears than of the tongue, and therefore wishing to 
break a habit I was getting into of pratthng, punning, and 
joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling com- 10 
pany, I gave Silence the second place. This and the 
next. Order, I expected would allow me more time for 
attending to my project and my studies. Resolution, 
once become habitual, would keep me firm in my en- 
deavours to obtain all the subsequent virtues ; Frugality 15 
and Industry freeing me from my remaining debt, and 
producing affluence and independence, would make 
more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice, etc., etc. 
Conceiving then, that, agreeably to the advice of Pythag- 
oras in his Golden Verses, daily examination would be 20 
necessary, I contrived the following method for conduct- 
ing that examination. 

I made a httle book, in which I allotted a page for 
each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so 
as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, 25 
marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed 
these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the begin- 
ning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, 
on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by 
a Httle black spot, every fault I found upon examination 3° 



156 



Franklin's Autobiography 



to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that 
day. 

Form of the pages 



TEMPERANCE. 


EAT NOT TO DULLNESS; 
DRINK NOT TO ELEVATION. 




S. 


M. 


T. 


W. 


T. 


F. 


S. 


T. 
















S. 


* 


* 




* 




* 




0. 


* * 


* 


* 




* 


* 


* 


R. 






* 






* 




F. 




* 






* 






I. 






*, 










S. 
















J. 
















M. 
















C. 
















T. 
















C. 
















H. 

















I determined to give a week's strict attention to each 
of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my 
great guard was to avoid every the least offence against 
Temperance^ leaving the other virtues to their ordinary 



Franklin's Autobiography 157 

chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. 
Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, 
marked T, clear of spots, I supposed the habit of that 
virtue so much strengthened, and its opposite weakened, 
that I might venture extending my attention to include 5 
the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear 
of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go through 
a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in 
a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, 
does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, 10 
which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works 
on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplished 
the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, 
the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the prog- 
ress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines 15 
of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I 
should be happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen 
weeks' daily examination. 

This my little book had for its motto these lines from 
Addison's Cato : 20 

" Here will I hold. If there's a power above us 
(And that there is, all nature cries aloud 
Through all her works), He must delight in virtue; 
And that which he delights in must be happy." 

Another from Cicero : 25 

"Ovitae Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque 
vitiorum ! Unus dies, bene et ex praeceptis tuis actus, peccanti 
immortalitati est anteponendus." 

Another from the Proverbs of Solomon, speaking of 
wisdom or virtue : 30 



158 Franklin's Autobiography 

" Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches 
and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths 
are peace." — iii. 16, 17. 

And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I 

5 thought it right and necessary to solicit his assistance for 

obtaining it ; to this end I formed the following little 

prayer, which was prefixed to my tables of examination, 

for daily use. 

" O pozverfid Goodness ! bountiful Father ! ^nercifiil Guide ! In- 

10 crease in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. 

Strengthen 7ny resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. 

Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my 

power for thy continual favours to me,'''' 

I used also sometimes a little prayer which I took from 
15 Thomson's Poems, viz. : 

" Father of light and Hfe, thou Good Supreme ! 
O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself! 
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, 
From every low pursuit; and fill my soul 
20 With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; 

Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss ! " 

The precept of Order requiring that every part of 7ny 
business should have its allotted time, one page in my little 
book contained the following scheme of employment for 
25 the twenty-four hours of a natural day. 

Rise, wash, and address 

Powerful Goodness I Contrive 

day's business, and take the 

resolution of the day; prose- 

30 " ^'^ """ ^""^ ' cute the present study, and 

breakfast. 



The Morning. 
Question, What good shall " 
I do this day ? 



Franklin's Autobiography 



159 



9 
10 



Work. 



Noon. 



II J 



Read, or overlook my ac- 
counts, and dine. 



Ea'ENING. 

Qiiestion. What good have - 
I done to-day ? 



Night. 



2 

3 
4 
5 J 

6 

7 
8 

9 
10 
II 
12 



Work. 



Put things in their places. 

Supper. Music or diversion, 

or conversation. Examination 
of the dav. 



IS 



-\ I }- Sleep. 



L 



4 J 



I entered upon the execution of this plan for self- 
examination, and continued it with occasional intermis- 
sions for some time. I was surprised to find myself so 
much fuller of faults than I had imagined ; but I had 25 
the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. To avoid the 
trouble of renewing now and then my little book, which, 
by scraping out the marks on the paper of old faults to 
make room for new ones in a new course, became full of 
holes, I transferred my tables and precepts to the ivory 30 
leaves of a memorandum book, on which the lines were 
drawn with red ink, that made a durable stain, and on 



i6o Franklin's Autobiography 

those lines I marked my faults with a black-lead pencil, 
which marks I could easily wipe out with a wet sponge. 
After a while I went through one course only in a year, 
and afterward only one in several years, till at length I 
5 omitted them entirely, being employed in voyages and 
business abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that inter- 
fered ; but I always carried my little book with me. 

My scheme of Order gave me the most trouble ] and 
I found that, though it might be practicable where a man's 

10 business was such as to leave him the disposition of his 
time, that of a journeyman printer, for instance, it was 
not possible to be exactly observed by a master, who 
must mix with the world, and often receive people of 
business at their own hours. Order, too, with regard 

15 to places for things, papers, etc., I found extremely dif- 
ficult to acquire. I had not been early accustomed to it, 
and, having an exceeding good memory, I was not so 
sensible of the inconvenience attending want of method. 
This article, therefore, cost me so much painful atten- 

20 tion, and my faults in it vexed me so much, and I made 
so little progress in amendment, and had such frequent 
relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, 
and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, 
like the man who, in buying an axe of a smith, my neigh- 

25 bour, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright 
as the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for 
him if he would turn the wheel ; he turned, while the 
smith pressed the broad face of the axe hard and heavily 
on the stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing. 

30 The man came every now and then from the wheel to 



Franklin's Autobiography i6i 

see how the work went on, and at length would take his 
axe as it was, without farther grinding. ^' No," said the 
smith, ^^turn on, turn on ; we shall have it bright by-and- 
by ; as yet, it is only speckled." "Yes," says the man, 
^•' but I think I like a speckled axe best'^ And I believe 5 
this may have been the case with many, who, having, for 
want of some such means as I employed, found the diffi- 
culty of obtaining good and breaking bad habits in other 
points of vice and virtue, have given up the struggle, and 
concluded that a " ^ speckled axe was best^\- for some- 10 
thing, that pretended to be reason, was every now and 
then suggesting to me that such extreme nicety as I 
exacted of myself might be a kind of foppery in morals, 
which, if it were known, would make me ridiculous ; that 
a perfect character might be attended with the incon- 15 
venience of being envied and hated ; and that a benevo- 
lent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his 
friends in countenance. 

In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to 
Order ; and now I am grown old, and my memory bad, 20 
I feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the whole, 
tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so 
ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, 
by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I 
otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it ; 25 
as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the en- 
graved copies, though they never reach the wished-for 
excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by 
the endeavour, and is tolerable while it continues fair 
and legible. 3° 

franklin's autobiography II 



1 62 Franklin's Autobiography 

It may be well my posterity should be informed that 
to this little artifice, with the blessing of God, their 
ancestor owed the constant felicity of his life, down to his 
79th yeai; in which this is written. What reverses may 

5 attend the remainder is in the hand of Providence ; but, 
if they arrive, the reflection on past happiness enjoyed 
ought to help his bearing them with more resignation. 
To Temperance he ascribes his long-continued health, 
and what is still left to him of a good constitution; to 

10 Industry and Frugality, the early easiness of his circum- 
stances and acquisition of his fortune, with all that know- 
ledge that enabled him to be a useful citizen, and obtained 
for him some degree of reputation among the learned ; to 
Sincerity and Justice, the confidence of his country, and 

15 the honourable employs it conferred upon him ; and to the 
joint influence of the whole mass of the virtues, even in 
the imperfect state he was able to acquire them, all that 
evenness of temper, and that cheerfulness in conversation, 
which makes his company still sought for, and agreeable 

20 even to his younger acquaintance. I hope, therefore, that 
some of my descendants may follow the example and reap 
the benefit. 

It will be remarked that, though my scheme was not 
wholly without rehgion, there was in it no mark of any of 

25 the distinguishing tenets of any particular sect. I had pur- 
posely avoided them ; for, being fully persuaded of the 
utility and excellency of my method, and that it might be 
serviceable to people in all religions, and intending some 
time or other to publish it, I would not have anything 

30 in it that should prejudice any one, of any sect, against 



Franklin's Autobiography 163 

it. I purposed writing a little comment on each virtue, 
in which I would have shown the advantages of possessing 
it, and the mischiefs attending its opposite vice ; and I 
should have called my book The Art of Virtuf,^ because 
it would have shown the means and manner of obtaining 5 
virtue, which would have distinguished it from the mere 
exhortation to be good, that does not instruct and in- 
dicate the means, but is Hke the apostle's man of verbal 
charity, who only without showing to the naked and 
hungry how or where they might get clothes or victuals, 10 
exhorted them to be fed and clothed. — James ii. 15, 16. 

But it so happened that my intention of writing and 
publishing this comment was never fulfilled. I did, in- 
deed, from time to time, put down short hints of the sen- 
timents, reasonings, etc., to be made use of in it, some 15 
of which I have still by me; but the necessary close 
attention to private business in the earHer part of my life, 
and public business since, have occasioned my postpon- 
ing it ; for, it being connected in my mind with a great 
and extensive project, that required the whole man to 20 
execute, and which an unforeseen succession of employs 
prevented my attending to, it has hitherto remained un- 
finished. 

In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce 
this doctrine, that vicious actions are not hurtful because 25 
they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurt- 
ful, the nature of man alone considered ; that it was, 
therefore, every one's interest to be virtuous who wished 

1 Nothing so likely to make a man's fortune as virtue. — Marg. 
note. 



164 Franklin's Autobiography 

to be happy even in this world ; and I should, from this 
circumstance (there being always in the world a number 
of rich merchants, nobiHty, states, and princes, who have 
need of honest instruments for the management of their 
5 affairs, and such being so rare), have endeavoured to 
convince young persons that no qualities were so likely 
to make a poor man's fortune as those of probity and 
integrity. 

My list of virtues contained at first but twelve; but a 

10 Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was gen- 
erally thought proud ; that my pride showed itself fre- 
quently in conversation ; that I was not content with 
being in the right when discussing any point, but was 
overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinced 

15 me by mentioning several instances ; I determined en- 
deavouring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly 
among the rest, and I added Humility to my Hst, giving 
an extensive meaning to the word. 

I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality 

20 of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the 
appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct 
contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive 
assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to 
the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or ex- 

25 pression in the language that imported a fixed opinion, 
such as certainly, undoubtedly^ etc., and I adopted, instead 
of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or / imagine a thing to 
be so or so ; or it so appears to me at present. When 
another asserted something that I thought an error, I 

30 denied myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly. 



Franklin's Autobiography 165 

and of showing immediately some absurdity in his propo- 
sition ; and in answering I began by observing that in 
certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, 
but in the present case there appeared or seejued to me 
some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this 5 
change in my manner; the conversations I engaged in 
went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I 
proposed my opinions procured them a readier reception 
and less contradiction ; I had less mortification when I 
was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevailed 10 
with others to give up their mistakes and join with me 
when I happened to be in the right. 

And this mode, which I at first put on with some violence 
to natural inchnation, became at length so easy, and so 
habitual to me, that perhaps for these fifty years past no one 15 
has ever heard a dogmatical expression escape me. And to 
this habit (after my character of integrity) I think it prin- 
cipally owing that I had early so much weight with my 
fellow-citizens when I proposed new institutions, or altera- 
tions in the old, and so much influence in pubHc councils 20 
when I became a member ; for I was but a bad speaker, 
never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in my choice 
of words, hardly correct in language, and yet I generally 
carried my points. 

In reahty, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural pas- 25 
sions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle 
with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one 
pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep 
out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this 
history ; for, even if I could conceive that I had com- 30 



1 66 Franklin's Autobiography 

pletely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my 
humility. 

[Thus far written at Passy, 1784.] 

[''/ am now about to write at home, August, 1788, but 
5 cannot have the help expected from 7ny papers, many 

of them being lost in the war, I have, however^ 
found the follow ing^^ ^ 

Having mentioned a great and extensive project ^Yiv:^ I 
had conceived, it seems proper that some account should 
10 be here given of that project and its object. Its first rise 
in my mind appears in the following little paper, acciden- 
tally preserved, viz. : 

Observations on my reading history, in Library, 
May 19th, 1 73 1. 
15 "That the great affairs of the world, the wars, revolu- 
tions, etc., are carried on and effected by parties. 

" That the view of these parties is their present general 
interest, or what they take to be such. 

" That the different views of these different parties 
20 occasion all confusion. 

"That while a party is carrying on a general design, 
each man has his particular private interest in view. 

" That as soon as a party has gained its general point, 
each member becomes intent upon his particular interest ; 
25 which, thwarting others, breaks that party into divisions, 
and occasions more confusion. 

"That few in public affairs act from a mere view of 
1 This is a marginal memorandum. 



Franklin's Autobiography 167 

the good of their country, whatever they may pretend ; 
and, though their actings bring real good to their country, 
yet men primarily considered that their own and their 
country's interest was united, and did not act from a 
principle of benevolence. 5 

" That fewer still, in public affairs, act with a view to 
the good of mankind. 

^^ There seems to me at present to be great occasion 
for raising a United Party for Virtue, by forming the 
virtuous and good men of all nations into a regular body 10 
to be governed by suitable good and wise rules, which good 
and wise men may probably be more unanimous in their 
obedience to, than common people are to common laws. 

*^ I at present think that whoever attempts this aright, 
and is well quaUfied, cannot fail of pleasing God, and of 15 
meeting with success. B. F." 

Revolving this project in my mind, as to be undertaken 
hereafter, when my circumstances should afford me the 
necessary leisure, I put down from time to time, on pieces 
of paper, such thoughts as occurred to me respecting it. 20 
Most of these are lost ; but I find one purporting to be 
the substance of an intended creed, containing, as I 
thought, the essentials of every known rehgion, and being 
free of everything that might shock the professors of any 
rehgion. It is expressed in these words, viz. : 25 

*^ That there is one God, who made all things. 

^^That he governs the world by his providence. 

" That he ought to be worshipped by adoration, prayer, 
and thanksgiving. 



1 68 Franklin's Autobiography 

" But that the most acceptable service of God is doing 
good to man. 

'* That the soul is immortal. 

^' And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish 
5 vice, either here or hereafter." ^ 

My ideas at that time were, that the sect should be 
begun and spread at first among young and single men 
only ; that each person to be initiated should not only 
declare his assent to such creed, but should have ex- 

10 ercised himself with the thirteen weeks' examination and 
practice of the virtues, as in the before-mentioned model ; 
that the existence of such a society should be kept a 
secret, till it was become considerable, to prevent solici- 
tations for the admission of improper persons, but that 

15 the members should each of them search among his 
acquaintance for ingenuous, well-disposed youths, to 
whom, with prudent caution, the scheme should be 
gradually communicated ; that the members should en- 
gage to afford their advice, assistance, and support to 

20 each other in promoting one another's interests, business, 
and advancement in life ; that, for distinction, we should 
be called The Society of the Free and Easy : free, as being, 
by the general practice and habit of the virtues, free from 
the dominion of vice ; and particularly by the practice of 

25 industry and frugality, free from debt, which exposes a 
man to confinement, and a species of slavery to his 
creditors. 

1 In the Middle Ages, Franklin, if such a phenomenon as Frank- 
lin were possible in the Middle Ages, would probably have been the 
founder of a monastic order. — BiGELOW. 



Franklin's Autobiography 169 

This is as much as I can now recollect of the project, 
except that I communicated it in part to two young men, 
who adopted it with some enthusiasm ; but my then 
narrow circumstances, and the necessity I was under of 
sticking close to my business, occasioned my postponing 5 
the further prosecution of it at that time ; and my multi- 
farious occupations, public and private, induced me to 
continue postponing, so that it has been omitted till I 
have no longer strength or activity left sufficient for such 
an enterprise ; though I am still of opinion that it was a 10 
practicable scheme, and might have been very useful, by 
forming a great number of good citizens ; and I was not 
discouraged by the seeming magnitude of the undertaking, 
as I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities 
may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs 15 
among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting 
off all amusements or other employments that wonld 
divert his attention, makes the execution of that same 
plan his sole study and business. 

In 1732 I first pubhshed my Almanac, under the 20 
name of Richard Satmde^s ; it was continued by me about 
twenty-five years, commonly called Poor Richard's 
Almanac. I endeavoured to make it both entertaining 
and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such 
demand, that I reaped considerable profit from it, vend- 25 
ing annually near ten thousand. And observing that it 
was generally read, scarce any neighbourhood in the 
province being without it, I considered it as a proper 
vehicle for conveying instruction among the common 
people, who bought scarcely any other books ; I therefore 30 



lyo Franklin's Autobiography 

filled all the little spaces that occurred between the re- 
markable days in the calendar with proverbial sentences, 
chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugaUty, as the 
means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue j 
5 it being more difficult for a man in want, to act always 
honestly, as, to use here one of those proverbs, it is hard 
for an empty sack to stand upright. 

These proverbs, which contained the wisdom of many 
ages and nations, I assembled and formed into a connected 

10 discourse prefixed to the Almanac of 1757, as the ha- 
rangue of a wise old man to the people attending an 
auction. The bringing all these scattered councils thus 
into a focus enabled them to make greater impression. 
The piece, being universally approved, was copied in all 

15 the newspapers of the Continent ] reprinted in Britain 
on a broadside,^ to be stuck up in houses ; two transla- 
tions were made of it in French, and great numbers 
bought by the clergy and gentry, to distribute gratis 
among their poor parishioners and tenants. In Pennsyl- 

2ovania, as it discouraged useless expense in foreign 
superfluities, some thought it had its share of influence 
in producing that growing plenty of money which was 
observable for several years after its publication. 

I considered my newspaper, also, as another means of 

25 communicating instruction, and in that view frequently 
reprinted in it extracts from the Spectator, and other 
moral writers ; and sometimes pubhshed little pieces of 
my own, which had been first composed for reading in 

^A sheet of paper printed on one side only, forming one large 
page. 



Franklin's Autobiography 171 

our Junto. Of these are a Socratic dialogue, tending to 
prove that, whatever might be his parts and abihties, a 
vicious man could not properly be called a man of 
sense ; and a discourse on self-denial, showing that 
virtue was not secure till its practice became a habitude, 5 
and was free from the opposition of contrary inchnations. 
These may be found in the papers about the beginning 

of 1735- 

In the conduct of my newspaper, I carefully excluded 
all libelling and personal abuse, which is of late years 10 
become so disgraceful to our country. Whenever I was 
soHcited to insert anything of that kind, and the writers 
pleaded, as they generally did, the Hberty of the press, 
and that a newspaper was like a stage-coach, in which 
any one who would pay had a right to a place, my 15 
answer was, that I would print the piece separately if 
desired, and the author might have as many copies as he 
pleased to distribute himself, but that I w^ould not take 
upon me to spread his detraction ; and that, having 
contracted with my subscribers to furnish them w^ith 20 
what might be either useful or entertaining, I could not 
fill their papers with private altercation, in which they 
had no concern, without doing them manifest injustice. 
Now, many of our printers make no scruple of gratifying 
the maHce of individuals by false accusations of the 25 
fairest characters among ourselves, augmenting animosity 
even to the producing of duels ; and are, moreover, so 
indiscreet as to print scurrilous reflections on the govern- 
ment of neighbouring states, and even on the conduct of 
our best national allies, which may be attended with the 30 



172 Franklin's Autobiography 

most pernicious consequences. These things I mention 
as a caution to young printers, and that they may be 
encouraged not to pollute their presses and disgrace 
their profession by such infamous practices, but refuse 
5 steadily, as they may see by my example that such a course 
of conduct will not, on the whole, be injurious to their 
interests. 

In 1733 I sent one of my journeymen to Charleston, 
South CaroHna, where a printer was wanting. I fur- 

10 nished him with a press and letters, on an agreement of 
partnership, by which I was to receive one-third of the 
profits of the business, paying one-third of the expense. 
He was a man of learning, and honest but ignorant in 
matters of account ; and, though he sometimes made me 

15 remittances, I could get no account from him, nor any 
satisfactory state of our partnership while he lived. On 
his decease, the business was continued by his widow, 
who, being born and bred in Holland, where, as I have 
been informed, the knowledge of accounts makes a part 

20 of female education, she not only sent me as clear a state 
as she could find of the transactions past, but continued 
to account with the greatest regularity and exactness 
every quarter afterwards, and managed the business with 
such success, that she not only brought up reputably a 

25 family of children, but, at the expiration of the term, 
was able to purchase of me the printing-house, and 
establish her son in it. 

I mention this affair chiefly for the sake of recom- 
mending that branch of education for our young females, 

30 as likely to be of more use to them and their children, in 



Franklin's Autobiography 173 

case of widowhood, than either music or dancing, by 
preserving them from losses by imposition of crafty men, 
and enabhng them to continue, perhaps, a profitable 
mercantile house, with established correspondence, till a 
son is grown up fit to undertake and go on with it, to 5 
the lasting advantage and enriching of the family. 

About the year 1734 there arrived among us from 
Ireland a young Presbyterian preacher, named Hemphill, 
who delivered with a good voice, and apparently extem- 
pore, most excellent discourses, which drew together 10 
considerable numbers of different persuasions, who joined 
in admiring them. Among the rest, I became one of 
his constant hearers, his sermons pleasing me, as they 
had little of the dogmatical kind, but inculcated strongly 
the practice of virtue, or what in the religious style are 15 
called good works. Those, however, of our congregation, 
who considered themselves as orthodox Presbyterians, 
disapproved his doctrine, and were joined by most of the 
old clergy, who arraigned him of heterodoxy^ before the 
synod,- in order to have him silenced. I became his 20 
zealous partisan, and contributed all I could to raise a 
party in his favour, and we combated for him awhile 
with some hopes of success. There was much scribbling 
pro and con upon the occasion ; and finding that, though 
an elegant preacher, he was but a poor writer, I lent 25 
him my pen and wrote for him two or three pamphlets, 
and one piece in the Gazette of April, 1735. Those 

1 Heresy. 

2 A convention of the clergy to determine questions of faith and 
church policy. 



174 Franklin's Autobiography 

pamphlets, as is generally the case with controversial 
writings, though eagerly read at the time were soon out of 
vogue, and I question whether a single copy of them now 
exists. 
5 During the contest an unlucky occurrence hurt his 
cause exceedingly. One of our adversaries having heard 
him preach a sermon that was much admired, thought he 
had somewhere read the sermon before, or at least a 
part of it. On search, he found that part quoted at 

10 length, in one of the British Reviews, from a discourse 
of Dr. Foster's. This detection gave many of our party 
disgust, who accordingly abandoned his cause, and oc- 
casioned our more speedy discomfiture in the synod. I 
stuck by him, however, as I rather approved his giving us 

15 good sermons composed by others, than bad ones of his 
own manufacture, though the latter was the practice of our 
common teachers. He afterward acknowledged to me 
that none of those he preached were his own ; adding, 
that his memory was such as enabled him to retain and 

20 repeat any sermon after one reading only. On our de- 
feat, he left us in search elsewhere of better fortune, and 
I quitted the congregation, never joining it after, though 
I continued many years my subscription for the support 
of its ministers. 

25 I had begun in 1733 to study languages; I soon made 
myself so much a master of the French as to be able to 
read the books with ease. I then undertook the Italian. 
An acquaintance, who was also learning it, used often to 
tempt me to play chess with him. Finding this took up 

30 too much of the time I had to spare for study, I at length 



Franklin's Autobiography 175 

refused to play any more, unless on this condition, that 
the victor in every game should have a right to impose a 
task, either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, 
or in translations, etc., which tasks the vanquished was to 
perform upon honour, before our next meeting. As w^e 5 
played pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that 
language. I afterwards with a little painstaking, acquired 
as much of the Spanish as to read their books also. 

I have already mentioned that I had only one year's 
instruction in a Latin school, and that when very young, 10 
after which I neglected that language entirely. But, 
when I had attained an acquaintance with the French, 
Italian, and Spanish, I was surprised to find, on looking 
over a Latin Testament, that I understood so much more 
of that language than I had imagined, which encouraged 15 
me to apply myself again to the study of it, and I met 
with more success, as those preceding languages had 
greatly smoothed my way. 

From these circumstances, I have thought that there 
is some inconsistency in our common mode of teaching 20 
languages. We are told that it is proper to begin first 
with the Latin, and, having acquired that, it will be more 
easy to attain those modern languages which are derived 
from it ; and yet we do not begin with the Greek, in 
order more easily to acquire the Latin. It is true that, 25 
if you can clamber and get to the top of a staircase with- 
out using the steps, you will more easily gain them in 
descending ; but certainly, if you begin with the lowest 
you will with more ease ascend to the top ; and I would 
therefore offer it to the consideration of those who super- 30 



176 Franklin's Autobiography 

intend the education of our youth, whether, since many 
of those who begin with the Latin quit the same after 
spending some years without having made any great 
proficiency, and what they have learnt becomes almost 
5 useless, so that their time has been lost, it would not 
have been better to have begun with the French, proceed- 
ing to the Italian, etc. ; for, though, after spending the 
same time, they should quit the study of languages and 
never arrive at the Latin, they would, however, have 

10 acquired another tongue or two, that, being in modern 
use, might be serviceable to them in common life. 

After ten years' absence from Boston, and having be- 
come easy in my circumstances, I made a journey thither 
to visit my relations, which I could not sooner well 

15 afford. In returning, I called at Newport to see my 
brother, then settled there with his printing-house. Our 
former differences were forgotten, and our meeting was 
very cordial and affectionate. He was fast declining in 
his health, and requested of me that, in case of his death, 

20 which he apprehended not far distant, I would take 
home his son, then but ten years of age, and bring him 
up to the printing business. This I accordingly per- 
formed, sending him a few years to school before I took 
him into the office. His mother carried on the business 

25 till he was grown up, when I assisted him with an as- 
sortment of new types, those of his father being in a 
manner worn out. Thus it was that I made my brother 
ample amends for the service I had deprived him of by 
leaving him so early. 

30 In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years 



Franklin's Autobiography 177 

old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long 
regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it 
to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of 
parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that 
they should never forgive themselves if a child died under 5 
it ; my example showing that the regret may be the 
same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be 
chosen. 

Our club, the Junto, was found so useful, and afforded 
such satisfaction to the members, that several were de- 10 
sirous of introducing their friends, which could not well 
be done without exceeding what we had settled as a 
convenient number, viz., twelve. We had from the be- 
ginning made it a rule to keep our institution a secret, 
which was pretty well observed ; the intention was to 15 
avoid apphcations of improper persons for admittance, 
some of whom, perhaps, we might find it difficult to re- 
fuse. I was one of those who were against any addition 
to our number, but, instead of it, made in writing a pro- 
posal, that every member separately should endeavour to 20 
form a subordinate club, with the same rules respecting 
queries, etc., and without informing them of the connec- 
tion with the Junto. The advantages proposed were, 
the improvement of so many more young citizens by the 
use of our institutions ; our better acquaintance with the 25 
general sentiments of the inhabitants on any occasion, 
as the Junto member might propose what queries we 
should desire, and was to report to the Junto what passed 
in his separate club ; the promotion of our particular in- 
terests in business by more extensive recommendation, 30 

franklin's autobiography 12 



178 Franklin's Autobiography 

and the increase of our influence in public affairs, and 
our power of doing good by spreading through the several 
clubs the sentiments of the Junto. 

The project was approved, and every member under- 
5 took to form his club, but they did not all succeed. Five 
or six only were completed, which were called by differ- 
ent names, as the Vine, the Union, the Band, etc. They 
were useful to themselves, and afforded us a good deal of 
amusement, information, and instruction, besides an- 

10 swering, in some considerable degree, our views of influ- 
encing the public opinion on particular occasions, of 
which I shall give some instances in course of time as 
they happened. 

My first promotion was my being chosen, in 1736, 

15 clerk of the General Assembly. The choice was made 
that year without opposition; but the year following, 
when I was again proposed (the choice, like that of the 
members, being annual), a new member made a long 
speech against me, in order to favour some other candi- 

20 date. I was, however, chosen, which was the more 
agreeable to me, as, besides the pay for the immediate 
service as clerk, the place gave me a better opportunity 
of keeping up an interest among the members, which 
secured to me the business of printing the votes, laws, 

25 paper money, and other occasional jobs for the public, 
that, on the whole, were very profitable. 

I therefore did not Hke the opposition of this new 
member, who was a gentleman of fortune and education, 
with talents that were likely to give him, in time, great 

30 influence in the House, which, indeed, afterwards hap- 



Franklin's Autobiography 179 

pened. I did not, however, aim at gaining his favour by 
paying any servile respect to hinn, but, after some time, 

took this other method. Having heard that he had in 
his Hbrary a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote 
a note to him, expressing my desire of perusing that book, 5 
and requesting he would do me the favour of lending it to 
me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I re- 
turned it in about a week with another note, expressing 
strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in 
the House, he spoke to me (which he had never done be- 10 
fore), and with great civility ; and he ever after manifested 
a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we be- 
came great friends, and our friendship continued to his 
death. This is another instance of the truth of an old 
maxim I had learned, which says, ''He that has once done 15 
you a ki?idness ivill be 7?wre ready to do you another, than he 
whom you yourself have obliged.'^ And it shows how much 
more profitable it is prudently to remove, than to resent, 
return, and continue inimical proceedings. 

In 1737, Colonel Spotswood, late governor of Virginia, 20 
and then postmaster-general, being dissatisfied with the 
conduct of his deputy at Philadelphia, respecting some 
neghgence in rendering, and inexactitude of his accounts, 
took from him the commission and offered it to me. I 
accepted it readily, and found it of great advantage ; for, 25 
though the salary was small, it facilitated the correspond- 
ence that improved my newspaper, increased the number 
demanded, as well as the advertisements to be inserted, so 
that it came to afford me a considerable income. My 
old competitor's newspaper declined proportionably, and 30 



i8o Franklin's Autobiography 

I was satisfied without retaliating his refusal, while post- 
master, to permit my papers being carried by the riders. 
Thus he suffered greatly from his neglect in due account- 
ing ; and I mention it as a lesson to those young men 

5 who may be employed in managing affairs for others, that 
they should always render accounts, and make remittances, 
with great clearness and punctuahty. The character of 
observing such a conduct is the most powerful of all rec- 
ommendations to new employments and increase of 

10 business. 

I began now to turn my thoughts a little to pubHc 
affairs, beginning, however, with small matters. The city 
watch^ was one of the first things that I conceived to want 
regulation. It was managed by the constables of the 

15 respective wards in turn ; the constable warned a number 
of housekeepers to attend him for the night. Those who 
chose never to attend, paid him six shillings a year to be 
excused, which was supposed to be for hiring substitutes, 
but was, in reality, much more than was necessary for 

20 that purpose, and made the constableship a place of 
profit ; and the constable, for a Httle drink, often got 
such ragamuffins about him as a watch, that respect- 
able housekeepers did not choose to mix with. Walk- 
ing the rounds, too, was often neglected, and most of the 

25 nights spent in tippling. I thereupon wrote a paper to 
be read in Junto, representing these irregularities, but 
insisting more particularly on the inequality of this six- 
shilling tax of the constables, respecting the circum- 
stances of those who paid it, since a poor widow house- 
1 Guardians of the peace. 



Franklin's Autobiography i8i 

keeper, all whose property to be guarded by the watch 
did not perhaps exceed the value of fifty pounds, paid as 
much as the wealthiest merchant, who had thousands of 
pounds' worth of goods in his stores. 

On the whole, I proposed as a more efiectual watch, 5 
the hiring of proper men to serve constantly in that busi- 
ness ; and as a more equitable way of supporting the 
charge, the levying a tax that should be proportioned to the 
property. This idea, being approved by the Junto, was 
communicated to the other clubs, but as arising in each 10 
of them ; and though the plan was not immediately carried 
into execution, yet, by preparing the minds of people for 
the change, it paved the way for the law obtained a few 
years after, when the members of our clubs were grown 
into more influence. 15 

About this time I wrote a paper (first to be read 
in Junto, but it was afterward published) on the different 
accidents and carelessnesses by which houses were set on 
fire, with cautions against them, and means proposed of 
avoiding them. This was much spoken of as a useful 20 
piece, and gave rise to a project, which soon followed it, 
of forming a company for the more ready extinguishing of 
fires, and mutual assistance in removing and securing of 
goods when in danger. Associates in this scheme were 
presently found, amounting to thirty. Our articles of 25 
agreement obhged every member to keep always in good 
order, and fit for use, a certain number of leather buckets, 
with strong bags and baskets (for packing and transport- 
ing of goods), which were to be brought to every fire; 
and we agreed to meet once a month and spend a social 30 



1 82 Franklin's Autobiography 

evening together, in discoursing and communicating such 
ideas as occurred to us upon the subjects of fires, as 
might be useful in our conduct on such occasions. 

The utiHty of this institution soon appeared, and many 
5 more desiring to be admitted than we thought convenient 
for one company, they were advised to form another, 
which was accordingly done ; and this went on, one new 
company being formed after another, till they became so 
numerous as to include most of the inhabitants who were 

TO men of property ; and now, at the time of my writing 
this, though upward of fifty years since its estabhshment, 
that which I first formed, called the Union Fire Company, 
still subsists and flourishes, though the first members are all 
deceased but myself and one, who is older by a year than 

15 1 am. The small fines that have been paid by members 
for absence at the monthly meetings have been applied to 
the purchase of fire-engines, ladders, fire-hooks, and other 
useful implements for each company, so that I question 
whether there is a city in the world better provided with 

20 the means of putting a stop to beginning conflagrations ; 
and, in fact, since these institutions, the city has never 
lost by fire more than one or two houses at a time, 
and the flames have often been extinguished before the 
house in which they began has been half consumed. 

25 In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Reverend 
Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable there 
as an itinerant preacher. He was at first permitted to 
preach in some of our churches ; but the clergy, taking a 
dislike to him, soon refused him their pulpits, and he 

30 was obliged to preach in the fields. The multitudes of all 



Franklin's Autobiography i 83 

sects and denominations that attended his sermons were 
enormous, and it was matter of speculation to me, who 
was one of the number, to observe the extraordinary in- 
fluence of his oratory on his hearers, and how much they 
admired and respected him, notwithstanding his common 5 
abuse of them, by assuring them they were naturally 
half beasts and half devils. It was wonderful to see the 
change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. 
From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it 
seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that 10 
one could not walk through the town in an evening without 
hearing psalms sung in different families of every street. 

And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the 
open air, subject to its inclemencies, the building of a 
house to meet in was no sooner proposed, and persons ap- 15 
pointed to receive contributions, but sufficient sums were 
soon received to procure the ground and erect the build- 
ing, which was one hundred feet long and seventy broad, 
about the size of Westminster Hall ; and the work was 
carried on with such spirit as to be finished in a much 20 
shorter time than could have been expected. Both house 
and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use 
of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might 
desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia ; 
the design in building not being to accommodate any 25 
particular sect, but the inhabitants in general ; so that 
even if the Mufti ^ of Constantinople were to send a mis- 
sionary to preach ^Mohammedanism to us, he would find 
a pulpit at his service. 

^ Head of the Mohammedan church. 



184 Franklin's Autobiography 

Mr. Whitefield, in leaving us, went preaching all the 
way through the colonies to Georgia. The settlement 
of that province had lately been begun, but, instead of 
being made with hardy, industrious husbandmen, accus- 
5 tomed to labour, the only people fit for such an enterprise, 
it was with families of broken shop-keepers and other in- 
solvent debtors, many of indolent and idle habits, taken 
out of the jails, who, being set down in the woods, unquali- 
fied for clearing land, and unable to endure the hardships 

10 of a new settlement, perished in numbers, leaving many 
helpless children unprovided for. The sight of their 
miserable situation inspired the benevolent heart of Mr. 
Whitefield with the idea of building an Orphan House 
there, in which they might be supported and educated. 

15 Returning northward, he preached up this charity, and 
made large collections, for his eloquence had a wonderful 
power over the hearts and purses of his hearers, of which 
I myself was an instance. 

I did not disapprove of the design, but, as Georgia 

20 was then destitute of materials and workmen, and it was 
proposed to send them from Philadelphia at a great ex- 
pense, I thought it would have been better to have built 
the house here, and brought the children to it. This I 
advised; but he was resolute in his first project, rejected my 

25 counsel, and I therefore refused to contribute. I happened 
soon after to attend one of his sermons, in the course of 
which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, 
and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. 
I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or 

30 four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he pro- 



Franklin's Autobiography 185 

ceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the 
coppers. i\nother stroke of his oratory made me ashamed 
of that, and determined me to give the sih^er ; and he 
finished so admirably, that I emptied my pocket wholly 
into the collector's dish, gold and all. At this sermon 5 
there was also one of our club, who, being of my senti- 
ments respecting the building in Georgia, and suspecting 
a collection might be intended, had, by precaution, emp- 
tied his pockets before he came from home. Towards the 
conclusion of the discourse, however, he felt a strong 10 
desire to give, and applied to a neighbour, who stood 
near him, to borrow some money for the purpose. The 
application was unfortunately [made] to perhaps the 
only man in the company who had the firmness not to 
be affected by the preacher. His answer was, " At any 15 
other tifne, Friend Hopkinson^ I would lejid to thee freely ; 
but not now, for thee see7ns to be out of thy right senses.'^ 
Some of Mr. Whitefield's enemies affected to suppose 
that he would apply these collections to his own private 
emolument ; but I, who was intimately acquainted with 20 
him (being employed in printing his Sermons and Jour- 
nals, etc.), never had the least suspicion of his integrity, 
but am to this day decidedly of opinion that he was in all 
his conduct a perfectly ho7iest 7nan ; and methinks my 
testimony in his favour ought to have the more weight, as 25 
we had no religious connection. He used, indeed, some- 
times to pray for my conversion, but never had the sat- 
isfaction of believing that his prayers were heard. Ours 
was a mere civil friendship, sincere on both sides, and 
lasted to his death. 30 



1 86 Franklin's Autobiography 

The following instance will show something of the 
terms on which we stood. Upon one of his arrivals from 
England at Boston, he wrote to me that he should come 
soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where he could lodge 
5 when there, as he understood his old friend and host, Mr. 
Benezet, was removed to Germantown. My answer was, 
" You know my house ; if you can make shift with its 
scanty accommodations, you will be most heartily wel- 
come." He repHed, that if I made that kind offer for 

10 Christ's sake, I should not miss of a reward. And I re- 
turned, ^^ DorCtletme be mistaken ; it was not for Christ s 
sake, but for your sake ^ One of our common acquaint- 
ance jocosely remarked, that, knowing it to be the custom 
of the saints, when they received any favour, to shift the 

15 burden of the obligation from off their own shoulders, and 
place it in heaven, I had contrived to fix it on earth. 

The last time I saw Mr. Whitefield was in London, 
when he consulted me about his Orphan House concern, 
and his purpose of appropriating it to the estabhshment 

20 of a college. 

He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his 
words and sentences so perfectly, that he might be heard 
and understood at a great distance, especially as his audi- 
tories, however numerous, observed the most exact silence. 

25 He preached one evening from the top of the Court- 
house steps, which are in the middle of Market street, 
and on the west side of Second street, which crosses it at 
right angles. Both streets were filled with his hearers to a 
considerable distance. Being among the hindmost in Mar- 

30 ket street, I had the curiosity to learn how far he could 



Franklin's Autobiography 187 

be heard, by retiring backwards down the street towards 
the river ; and I found his voice distinct till I came near 
Front street, when some noise in that street obscured 
it. Imagining then a semicircle, of which my distance 
should be the radius, and that it were filled with audi- 5 
tors, to each of whom I allowed two square feet, I com- 
puted that he might well be heard by more than thirty 
thousand. This reconciled me to the newspaper accounts 
of his having preached to twenty-five thousand people in 
the fields, and to the ancient histories of generals 10 
haranguing whole armies, of which I had sometimes 
doubted. 

By hearing him often, I came to distinguish easily 
between sermons newly composed, and those which he had 
often preached in the course of his travels. His delivery 15 
of the latter was so improved by frequent repetitions that 
every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, 
was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without 
being interested in the subject, one could not help being 
pleased with the discourse ; a pleasure of much the same 20 
kind with that received from an excellent piece of music. 
This is an advantage itinerant preachers have over those 
who are stationary, as the latter cannot well improve 
their dehvery of a sermon by so many rehearsals. 

His writing and printing from time to time gave great 25 
advantage to his enemies ; unguarded expressions, and 
even erroneous opinions, delivered in preaching, might 
have been afterwards explained or qualified by supposing 
others that might have accompanied them, or they might 
have been denied ; but litera scripta inanet. Critics 30 



1 88 Franklin's Autobiography 

attacked his writings violently, and with so much ap- 
pearance of reason as to diminish the number of his 
votaries and prevent their increase ; so that I am of 
opinion if he had never written anything, he would have 
5 left behind him a much more numerous and important 
sect, and his reputation might in that case have been 
still growing, even after his death, as there being nothing 
of his writing on which to found a censure and give him a 
lower character, his proselytes would be left at liberty to 

feign for him as great a variety of excellences as their 
enthusiastic admiration might wish him to have pos- 
sessed. 

My business was now continually augmenting, and my 
circumstances growing daily easier, my newspaper having 

J5 become very profitable, as being for a time almost the 
only one in this and the neighbouring provinces. I ex- 

. perienced, too, the truth of the observation, " that after 
getting the first hundred pound, it is 7no7'e easy to get the 
second,'' money itself being of a prolific nature. 

20 The partnership at Carolina having succeeded, I was 
encouraged to engage in others, and to promote several 
of my workmen, who had behaved well, by establishing 
them with printing-houses in different colonies, on the 
same terms with that in Carolina. Most of them did well, 

25 being enabled at the end of our term, six years, to pur- 
chase the types of me and go on working for themselves, 
by which means several families were raised. Partner- 
ships often finish in quarrels ; but I was happy in this, 
that mine were all carried on and ended amicably, owing, 

30 I think, a good deal to the precaution of having very 



Franklin's Autobiography 189 

explicitly settled, in our articles, everything to be done by 
or expected from each partner, so that there was nothing 
to dispute, which precaution I would therefore recom- 
mend to all who enter into partnerships ; for, whatever 
esteem partners may have for, and confidence in each 5 
other at the time of the contract, Httle jealousies and 
disgusts may arise, with ideas of inequality in the care and 
burden of the business, etc., which are attended often 
with breach of friendship and of the connection, perhaps 
with lawsuits and other disagreeable consequences. 10 

I had, on the whole, abundant reason to be satisfied 
with my being established in Pennsylvania. There were, 
however, two things that I regretted, there being no pro- 
vision for defence, nor for a complete education of youth ; 
no militia, nor any college. I therefore, in 1743, drew 15 
up a proposal for establishing an academy ; and at that 
time, thinking the Reverend Mr. Peters, who was out of 
employ, a fit person to superintend such an institution, I 
communicated the project to him; but he, having more 
profitable views in the service of the proprietaries, which 20 
succeeded, declined the undertaking ; and, not knowing 
another at that time suitable for such a trust, I let the 
scheme lie awhile dormant. I succeeded better the next 
year, 1744, in proposing and establishing a Philosophical 
Society. The paper I wrote for that purpose will be 25 
found among my writings, when collected. 

With respect to defence, Spain having been several 
years at war against Great Britain, and being at length 
joined by France, which brought us into great danger ; 
and the laboured and long-continued endeavour of our 30 



190 Franklin's Autobiography 

governor, Thomas, to prevail with our Quaker Assembly 
to pass a militia law, and make other provisions for the 
security of the province, having proved abortive, I de- 
termined to try what might be done by a voluntary 
5 association of the people. To promote this, I first wrote 
and published a pamphlet, entitled Plain Truth, in which 
I stated our defenceless situation in strong lights, with the 
necessity of union and discipHne for our defence, and 
promised to propose in a few days an association, to be 

10 generally signed for that purpose. The pamphlet had a 
sudden and surprising effect. I was called upon for the 
instrument of association, and having settled the draft of 
it with a few friends, I appointed a meeting of the citizens 
in the large building before mentioned. The house was 

15 pretty full ; I had prepared a number of printed copies, 
and provided pens and ink dispersed all over the room. 
I harangued them a little on the subject, read the paper, 
and explained it, and then distributed the copies, which 
were eagerly signed, not the least objection being 

20 made. 

When the company separated, and the papers were 
collected, we found above twelve hundred hands; and, 
other copies being dispersed in the country, the sub- 
scribers amounted at length to upward of ten thousand. 

25 These all furnished themselves as soon as they could with 
arms, formed themselves into companies and regiments, 
chose their own officers, and met every week to be in- 
structed in the manual exercise, and other parts of mili- 
tary discipline. The women, by subscriptions among 

30 themselves, provided silk colours, which they presented 



Franklin's Autobiography 191 

to the companies, painted with different devices and 
mottoes, which I supphed. 

The officers of the companies composing the Philadel- 
phia regiment, being met, chose me for their colonel ; 
but, conceiving myself unfit, I decKned that station, and 5 
recommended Mr. Lawrence, a fine person, and man of 
influence, who was accordingly appointed. I then pro- 
posed a lottery to defray the expense of building a battery 
below the town, and furnishing it with cannon. It filled 
expeditiously, and the battery was soon erected, the mer- 10 
Ions ^ being framed of logs and filled with earth. We 
bought some old cannon from Boston, but, these not 
being sufficient, we wrote to England for more, solicit- 
ing, at the same time, our proprietaries for some assist- 
ance, though without much expectation of obtaining it. 15 

Meanwhile, Colonel Lawrence, William Allen, Abram 
Taylor, Esqr., and myself were sent to New York by the 
associators, commissioned to borrow some cannon of 
Governor Clinton. He at first refused us peremptorily ; 
but at dinner with his council, where there was great 20 
drinking of Madeira wine, as the custom of that place 
then was, he softened by degrees, and said he would lend 
us six. After a few more bumpers he advanced to ten ; 
and at length he very good-naturedly conceded eighteen. 
They were fine cannon, eighteen-pounders, with their 25 
carriages, which we soon transported and mounted on 
our battery, where the associators kept a nightly guard 
while the war lasted, and among the rest I regularly took 
my turn of duty there as a common soldier. 
1 Ramparts. 



192 Franklin's Autobiography 

My activity in these operations was agreeable to the 
governor and council ; they took me into confidence, and 
I was consulted by them in every measure wherein their 
concurrence was thought useful to the association. Call- 
5 ing in the aid of rehgion, I proposed to them the pro- 
claiming a fast, to promote reformation, and implore the 
blessing of Heaven on our undertaking. They embraced 
the motion ; but, as it was the first fast ever thought of 
in the province, the secretary had no precedent from 

10 which to draw the proclamation. My education in New 
England, where a fast is proclaimed every year, was here 
of some advantage : I drew it in the accustomed style, it 
was translated into German, printed in both languages, 
and divulged through the province. This gave the clergy 

15 of the different sects an opportunity of influencing their 
congregations to join in the association, and it would 
probably have been general among all but Quakers if 
the peace had not soon intervened. 

It was thought by some of my friends that, by my 

20 activity in these affairs, I should offend that sect, and 
thereby lose my interest in the Assembly of the province, 
where they formed a great majority. A young gentleman 
who had likewise some friends in the House, and wished 
to succeed me as their clerk, acquainted me that it was 

25 decided to displace me at the next election ; and he, 
therefore, in good will, advised me to resign, as more 
consistent with my honour than being turned out. My 
answer to him was, that I had read or heard' of some 
public man who made it a rule never to ask for an office, 

30 and never to refuse one when offered to him. '^ I ap- 



Franklin's Autobiography 193 

prove," says I, ^^ of his rule, and will practise it with a 
small addition ; I shall never ask, never )'efiise, nor ever 
7'esign an office. If they will have my office of clerk to 
dispose of to another, they shall take it from me. I will 
not, by giving it up, lose my right of some time or other 5 
making reprisals on my adversaries." I heard, however, 
no more of this ; I was chosen again unanimously as 
usual at the next election. Possibly, as they disliked my 
late intimacy with the members of council, who had joined 
the governors in all the disputes about military prepara- 10 
tions, with which the House had long been harassed, they 
might have been pleased if I would voluntarily have left 
them ; but they did not care to displace me on account 
merely of my zeal for the association, and they could not 
well give another reason. 15 

Indeed I had some cause to believe that the defence of 
the country was not disagreeable to any of them, provided 
they were not required to assist in it. And I found that 
a much greater number of them than I could have im- 
agined, though against offensive war, were clearly for the 20 
defensive. Many pamphlets p7'o and con were published 
on the subject, and some by good Quakers, in favour of 
defence, which I believe convinced most of their younger 
people. 

A transaction in our fire company gave me some in- 25 
sight into their prevailing sentiments. It had been pro- 
posed that we should encourage the scheme for building 
a battery by laying out the present stock, then about sixty 
pounds, in tickets of the lottery. By our rules, no money 
could be disposed of till the next meeting after the pro- 30 
franklin's autobiography — 13 



194 Franklin's Autobiography 

posal. The company consisted of thirty members, of 
which twenty-two were Quakers, and eight only of other 
persuasions. We eight punctually attended the meeting ; 
but, though we thought that some of the Quakers would 
5 join us, we were by no means sure of a majority. Only 
one Quaker, Mr. James Morris, appeared to oppose the 
measure. He expressed much sorrow that it had ever 
been proposed, as he said Friends w^ere all against it, and 
it would create such discord as might break up the com- 

10 pany. We told him that we saw no reason for that ; we 
were the minority, and if Friends were against the meas- 
ure, and outvoted us, we must and should, agreeably to 
the usage of all societies, submit. When the hour for 
business arrived it was moved to put the vote ; he allowed 

15 we might then do it by the rules, but, as he could assure 
us that a number of members intended to be present for 
the purpose of opposing it, it would be but candid to 
allow a little time for their appearing. 

While we were disputing this, a waiter came to tell me 

20 two gentlemen below desired to speak with me. I went 
down, and found they were two of our Quaker members. 
They told me there were eight of them assembled at a 
tavern just by ; that they were determined to come and 
vote with us if there should be occasion, which they hoped 

25 would not be the case, and desired we would not call for 
their assistance if we could do without it, as their voting 
for such a measure might embroil them with their elders 
and friends. Being thus secure of a majority, I went up, 
and after a Httle seeming hesitation, agreed to a delay of 

30 another hour. This Mr. Morris allowed to be extremely 



Franklin's Autobiography 195 

fair. Not one of his opposing friends appeared, at which 
he expressed great surprise ; and, at the expiration of the 
hour, we carried the resokition eight to one ; and as, of 
the twenty-two Quakers, eight were ready to vote with us, 
and thirteen, by their absence, manifested that they were 5 
not incUned to oppose the measure, I afterward estimated 
the proportion of Quakers sincerely against defence as 
one to twenty-one only ; for these were all regular mem- 
bers of that society, and in good reputation among them, 
and had due notice of what was proposed at that meeting. 10 

The honourable and learned Mr. Logan, who had always 
been of that sect, was one who wTote an address to them, 
declaring his approbation of defensive war, and support- 
ing his opinion by many strong arguments. He put 
into my hands sixty pounds to be laid out in lottery 15 
tickets for the battery, with directions to apply what 
prizes might be drawn wholly to that service. He told 
me the following anecdote of his old master, WilHam 
Penn, respecting defence. He came over from England, 
when a young man, with that proprietary, and as his 20 
secretary. It was war-time, and their ship was chased by 
an armed vessel, supposed to be an enemy. Their cap- 
tain prepared for defence ; but told WilHam Penn, and 
his company of Quakers, that he did not expect their 
assistance, and they might retire into the cabin, which 25 
they did, except James Logan, who chose to stay upon 
deck, and was quartered to a gun. The supposed enemy 
proved a friend, so there was no fighting ; but when the 
secretary went down to communicate the intelligence, 
William Penn rebuked him severely for staying upon 30 



196 Franklin's Autobiography 

deck, and undertaking to assist in defending the vessel, 
contrary to the principles of Friends, especially as it had 
not been required by the captain. This reproof, being 
before all the company, piqued the secretary, who an- 

5 swered, '^ I being thy servant^ why did thee not order me to 
come down ? But thee was willing enough that I should 
stay and help to fight the ship when thee thought there was 
danger'^ 

My being many years in the Assembly, the majority 

10 of which were constantly Quakers, gave me frequent 
opportunities of seeing the embarrassment given them 
by their principle against war, whenever application was 
made to them, by order of the crown, to grant aids for 
military purposes. They were unwilling to offend gov- 

15 ernment, on the one hand, by a direct refusal; and their 
friends, the body of the Quakers, on the other, by a 
compHance contrary to their principles ; hence a variety 
of evasions to avoid complying, and modes of disguising 
the compHance when it became unavoidable. The com- 

20 mon mode at last was, to grant money under the phrase 
of its being ^fior the king's use,'^ and never to inquire 
how it was applied. 

But, if the demand was not directly from the crown, 
that phrase was found not so proper, and some other was 

25 to be invented. As, when powder was wanting (I think 
it was for the garrison at Louisburg), and the government 
of New England soHcited a grant of some from Penn- 
sylvania, which was much urged on the House by Gov- 
ernor Thomas, they could not grant money to buy powder, 

30 because that was an ingredient of war ; but they voted 



Franklin's Autobiography 197 

an aid to New England of three thousand pounds, to be 
put into the hands of the governor, and appropriated it 
for the purchasing of bread, flour, wheat, or other grat?i. 
Some of the council, desirous of giving the House still 
further embarrassment, advised the governor not to accept 5 
provision, as not being the thing he had demanded ; but 
he replied, ^^ I shall take the money, for I understand 
very well their meaning; other grain is gunpowder," 
which he accordingly bought, and they never objected 
to it. 10 

It was in allusion to this fact that, when in our fire 
company we feared the success of our proposal in favour 
of the lottery, and I had said to my friend ]\Ir. Syng, one 
of our members, ^' If we fail, let us move the purchase of 
a fire-engine with the money ; the Quakers can have no 15 
objection to that; and then, if you nominate me and I 
you as a committee for that purpose, we will buy a great 
gun, which is certainly a fire-ejigme '' ^' I see," says he, 
'^ you have improved by being so long in the Assembly ; 
your equivocal project would be just a match for their 20 
wheat or other grain'' 

These embarrassments that the Quakers suffered from 
having established and published it as one of their princi- 
ples that no kind of war was lawful, and which, being 
once published, they could not afterwards, however they 25 
might change their minds, easily get rid of, reminds me 
of what I think a more prudent conduct in another sect 
among us, that of the Dunkers. I was acquainted with 
one of its founders, Michael Welfare, soon after it ap- 
peared. He complained to me that they were grievously 30 



198 Franklin's Autobiography 

calumniated by the zealots of other persuasions, and 
charged with abominable principles and practices to 
which they were utter strangers. I told him this had 
always been the case with new sects, and that, to put a 
5 stop to such abuse, I imagined it might be well to pub- 
lish the articles of their belief, and the rules of their dis- 
cipline. He said that it had been proposed among them, 
but not agreed to, for this reason : " When we were first 
drawn together as a society," says he, "it had pleased 

10 God to enlighten our minds so far as to see that some 
doctrines, which we once esteemed truths, were errors ; 
and that others, which we had esteemed errors, were real 
truths. From time to time He has been pleased to afford 
us farther light, and our principles have been improving, 

15 and our errors diminishing. Now we are not sure that we 
are arrived at the end of this progression, and at the per- 
fection of spiritual or theological knowledge ; and we fear 
that, if we should once print our confession of faith, we 
should feel ourselves as if bound and confined by it, and 

20 perhaps be unwilHng to receive further improvement, and 
our successors still more so, as conceiving what we their 
elders and founders had done, to be something sacred, 
never to be departed from." 

This modesty in a sect is perhaps a singular instance in 

25 the history of mankind, every other sect supposing itself 
in possession of all truth, and that those who differ are so 
far in the wrong ; like a man traveUing in foggy weather, 
those at some distance before him on the road he sees 
wrapped up in the fog, as well as those behind him, and 

30 also the people in the fields on each side, but near him all 



Franklin's Autobiography 199 

appears clear, though in truth he is as much in the fog as 
any of them. To avoid this kind of embarrassment, the 
Quakers have of late years been gradually declining the 
pubhc service in the Assembly and in the magistracy, 
choosing rather to quit their power than their principle. 5 

In order of time, I should have mentioned before, that 
having, in 1742, invented an open stove for the better 
warming of rooms, and at the same time saving fuel, as 
the fresh air admitted was warmed in entering, I made a 
present of the model to Mr. Robert Grace, one of my 10 
early friends, who, having an iron-furnace,^ found the cast- 
ing of the plates for these stoves a profitable thing, as 
they were growing in demand. To promote that demand, 
I wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled An Account 
of the new-invented Pennsylvania Fireplaces ; wherein their \^ 
Construction and Manner of Operation is particularly 
explained; their Advantages above every other Method of 
warming Rooms demonstrated ; and all Objections that 
have been raised agaifist the Use of the?n answered afid 
obviated, etc. This pamphlet had a good effect. Governor 20 
Thomas was so pleased with the construction of this stove, 
as described in it, that he offered to give me a patent for 
the sole vending of them for a term of years ; but, I declined 
it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on 
such occasions, viz.. That, as we enjoy great advantages 25 
from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an op- 
portunity to serve others by any invention of ours ; and this 
we should do freely and generously. 

An ironmonger in London however, assuming a good 
1 Called Warwick Furnace, in Chester County, Pennsykania. 



200 Franklin's Autobiography 

deal of my pamphlet, and working it up into his own, and 
making some small changes in the machine, which rather 
hurt its operation, got a patent for it there, and made, as 
I was told, a Httle fortune by it. And this is not the only 
5 instance of patents taken out for my inventions by others, 
though not always with the same success, which I never con- 
tested, as having no desire of profiting by patents myself, 
and hating disputes. The use of these fireplaces in very 
many houses, both of this and the neighbouring colonies, 

10 has been, and is, a great saving of wood to the inhabitants. 

Peace being concluded, and the association business 

therefore at an end, I turned my thoughts again to the affair 

of establishing an academy. The first step I took was to 

associate in the design a number of active friends, of whom 

15 the Junto furnished a good part ; the next was to write 
and publish a pamphlet, entitled Proposals Relating to the 
Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. This I distributed 
among the principal inhabitants gratis ; and as soon as I 
could suppose their minds a little prepared by the perusal 

20 of it, I set on foot a subscription for opening and support- 
ing an academy ; it was to be paid in quotas ^ yearly for 
five years ; by so dividing it, I judged the subscription 
might be larger, and I beHeved it was so, amounting to 
no less, if I remember right, than five thousand pounds. 

25 In the introduction to these proposals, I stated their 
publication, not as an act of mine, but of some public- 
spirited gentlemen, avoiding as much as I could, according 
to my usual rule, the presenting myself to the pubHc as 
the author of any scheme for their benefit. 
1 Instalments. 



Franklin's Autobiography 201 

The subscribers, to carry the project into immediate 
execution, chose out of their number twenty-four trustees, 
and appointed Mr. Francis, then attorney-general, and 
myself to draw up constitutions for the government of 
the academy ; which being done and signed, a house was 5 
hired, masters engaged, and the schools opened, I think, 
in the same year, 1749. 

The scholars mcreasing fast, the house was soon found 
too small, and we were looking out for a piece of ground, 
properly situated, with intention to build, when Provi- 10 
dence threw into our way a large house ready built, which, 
with a few alterations, might well serve our purpose. 
This was the building before mentioned, erected by the 
hearers of Mr. Whitefield, and was obtained for us in the 
following manner. 15 

It is to be noted that the contributions to this build- 
ing being made by people of different sects, care was 
taken in the nomination of trustees, in whom the build- 
ing and ground was to be vested, that a predominancy 
should not be given to any sect, lest in time that pre- 20 
dominancy might be a means of appropriating the whole 
to the use of such sect, contrary to the original intention. It 
was therefore that one of each sect was appointed, viz., one 
Church-of-England man, one Presbyterian, one Baptist, 
one Moravian, etc., those, in case of vacancy by death, 25 
were to fill it by election from among the contributors. 
The Moravian happened not to please his colleagues, and 
on his death they resolved to have no other of that sect. 
The difficulty then was, how to avoid having two of some 
other sect, by means of the new choice. 3° 



202 Franklin's Autobiography 

Several persons were named, and for that reason not 
agreed to. At length one mentioned me, with the observa- 
tion that I was merely an honest man, and of no sect at all, 
which prevailed with them to choose me. The enthusiasm 
5 which existed when the house was built had long since 
abated, and its trustees had not been able to procure 
fresh contributions for paying the ground-rent, and dis- 
charging some other debts the building had occasioned, 
which embarrassed them greatly. Being now a member 

lo of both sets of trustees, that for the building and that 
for the academy, I had a good opportunity of negotiating 
with both, and brought them finally to an agreement, by 
which the trustees for the building were to cede it to 
those of the academy, the latter undertaking to discharge 

15 the debt, to keep forever open in the building a large 
hall for occasional preachers, according to the original 
intention, and maintain a free-school for the instruction 
of poor children. Writings were accordingly drawn, and 
on paying the debts the trustees of the academy were 

20 put in possession of the premises ; and by dividing the 
great and lofty hall into stories, and different rooms above 
and below for the several schools, and purchasing some 
additional ground, the whole was soon made fit for our pur- 
pose, and the scholars removed into the building. The 

25 care and trouble of agreeing with the workmen, purchas- 
ing materials, and superintending the work, fell upon me ; 
and I went through it the more cheerfully, as it did not 
then interfere with my private business, having the year 
before taken a very able, industrious, and honest partner, 

30 Mr. David Hall, with whose character I was well acquainted, 



Franklin's Autobiography 203 

as he had worked for me four years. He took off my 
hands all care of the printing-office, paying me punc- 
tually my share of the profits. The partnership continued 
eighteen years, successfully for us both. 

The trustees of the academy, after a while, were incor- 5 
porated by a charter from the governor ; their funds were 
increased by contributions in Britain and grants of land 
from the proprietaries, to which the Assembly has since 
made considerable addition; and thus was established 
the present University of Philadelphia. I have been 10 
continued one of its trustees from the beginning, now 
near forty years, and have had the very great pleasure of 
seeing a number of the youth who have received their 
education in it, distinguished by their improved abihties, 
serviceable in public stations, and ornaments to their 15 
country. 

When I disengaged myself, as above mentioned, from 
private business, I flattered myself that, by the sufficient 
though moderate fortune I had acquired, I had secured 
leisure during the rest of my life for philosophical studies 20 
and amusements. I purchased all Dr. Spence's apparatus, 
who had come from England to lecture here, and I pro- 
ceeded in my electrical experiments with great alacrity ; 
but the pubHc, now considering me as a man of leisure, 
laid hold of me for their purposes, every part of our civil 25 
government, and almost at the same time, imposing some 
duty upon me. The governor put me into the commis- 
sion of the peace ; the corporation of the city chose me 
of the common council, and soon after an alderman ; and 
the citizens at large chose me a burgess to represent them 30 



204 Franklin's Autobiography 

in Assembly. This latter station was the more agreeable 
to me, as I was at length tired with sitting there to hear 
debates, in which, as clerk, I could take no part, and 
which were often so unentertaining that I was induced to 
5 amuse myself with making magic squares or circles, or 
anything to avoid weariness ; and I conceived my be- 
coming a member would enlarge my power of doing 
good. I would not, however, insinuate that my ambition 
was not flattered by all these promotions ; it certainly was ; 

10 for, considering my low beginning, they were great things 
to me ; and they were still more pleasing, as being so 
many spontaneous testimonies of the public good opinion, 
and by me entirely unsoHcited. 

The office of justice of the peace I tried a little, by 

15 attending a few courts, and sitting on the bench to hear 
causes ; but finding that more knowledge of the common 
law than I possessed was necessary to act in that station 
with credit, I gradually withdrew from it, excusing myself 
by my being obliged to attend the higher duties of a 

20 legislator in the Assembly. My election to this trust was 
repeated every year for ten years, without my ever asking 
any elector for his vote, or signifying, either directly or 
indirectly, any desire of being chosen. On taking my 
seat in the House, my son was appointed their clerk. 

25 The year following, a treaty being to be held with the 
Indians at Carlisle, the governor sent a message to the 
House, proposing that they should nominate some of their 
members, to be joined with some members of council, as 
commissioners for that purpose. The House named the 

30 speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself; and, being commis- 



Franklin's Autobiography 205 

sioned, we went to Carlisle, and met the Indians accord- 
ingly. 

As those people are extremely apt to get drunk, and, 
when so, are very quarrelsome and disorderly, we strictly 
forbade the selHng any Hquor to them ; and when they 5 
complained of this restriction, we told them that if they 
would continue sober during the treaty, we would give 
them plenty of rum when business was over. They 
promised this, and they kept their promise, because they 
could get no liquor, and the treaty was conducted very 10 
orderly, and concluded to mutual satisfaction. They then 
claimed and received the rum ; this was in the afternoon : 
they were near one hundred men, wouien, and children, 
and were lodged in temporary cabins, built in the form of 
a square, just without the town. In the evening, hearing 15 
a great noise among them, the commissioners walked out 
to see what was the matter. We found they had made a 
great bonfire in the middle of the square ; they were all 
drunk, men and women, quarreUing and fighting. Their 
dark-coloured bodies, half naked, seen only by the gloomy 20 
light of the bonfire, running after and beating one another 
with firebrands, accompanied by their horrid yellings, 
formed a scene the most resembling our ideas of hell that 
could well be imagined ; there was no appeasing the 
tumult, and we retired to our lodging. At midnight a 25 
number of them came thundering at our door, demanding 
more rum, of which we took no notice. 

The next day, sensible they had misbehaved in giving 
us that disturbance, they sent three of their old counsellors 
to make their apology. The orator acknowledged the 30 



2o6 Franklin's Autobiography 

fault, but laid it upon the rum ; and then endeavoured to 
excuse the rum by saying, " The Great Spirit, who made 
all things, made everything for some use, and whatever use 
he designed anything for, that use it should always be put 
5 to. Now, when he made rum, he said, ' Let this be for the 
Indians to get drunk with,^ and it must be so,'' And, 
indeed, if it be the design of Providence to extirpate these 
savages in order to make room for cultivators of the 
earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the 

10 appointed means. It has already annihilated all the tribes 
who formerly inhabited the sea-coast. 

In 175 1, Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend of mine, 
conceived the idea of establishing a hospital in Phila- 
delphia (a very beneficent design, which has been ascribed 

15 to me, but was originally his), for the reception and cure 
of poor sick persons, whether inhabitants of the province 
or strangers. He was zealous and active in endeavouring 
to procure subscriptions for it, but the proposal being a 
novelty in America, and at first not well understood, he 

20 met with but small success. 

At length he came to me with the compHment that he 
found there was no such thing as carrying a public-spirited 
project through without my being concerned in it. ^^ For," 
says he, " I am often asked by those to whom I propose 

25 subscribing, Have you consulted Franklin upon this busi- 
ness? And what does he think of it? And when I tell 
them that I have not (supposing it rather out of your 
line), they do not subscribe, but say they will consider of 
it." I inquired into the nature and probable utility of 

30 his scheme, and receiving from him a very satisfactory 



Franklin's Autobiography 207 

explanation, I not only subscribed to it myself, but engaged 
heartily in the design of procuring subscriptions from 
others. Previously, however, to the solicitation, I en- 
deavoured to prepare the minds of the people by writing 
on the subject in the newspapers, which was my usual 5 
custom in such cases, but w^hich he had omitted. 

The subscriptions afterwards were more free and 
generous ; but, beginning to flag, I sa\v they would be 
insufficient without some assistance from the Assembly, 
and therefore proposed to petition for it, which was done. 10 
The country members did not at first relish the project ; 
they objected that it could only be serviceable to the city, 
and therefore the citizens alone should be at the expense 
of it ; and they doubted whether the citizens themselves 
generally approved of it. My allegation on the contrary, 15 
that it met with such approbation as to leave no doubt of 
our being able to raise two thousand pounds by voluntary 
donations, they considered as a most extravagant sup- 
position, and utterly impossible. 

On this I formed my plan; and, asking leave to bring 20 
in a bill for incorporating the contributors according to 
the prayer of their petition, and granting them a blank 
sum of money, which leave w^as obtained chiefly on the 
consideration that the House could throw the bill out if 
they did not like it, I drew it so as to make the impor- 25 
tant clause a conditional one, viz., ^^And be it enacted, 
by the authority aforesaid, that when the said contributors 
shall have met and chosen their managers and treasurer, 
and shall have raised by their coyitribiitions a capital stock 
of value (the yearly interest of which is to be 30 



2o8 Franklin^s Autobiography 

applied to the accommodating of the sick poor in the said 
hospital, free of charge for diet, attendance, advice, and 
medicines), and shall inake the same appear to the satis- 
faction of the speaker of the Assembly for the time being, 
5 that then it shall and may be lawful for the said speaker, 
and he is hereby required, to sign an order on the pro- 
vincial treasurer for the payment of two thousand pounds, 
in two yearly payments, to the treasurer of the said hospital, 
to be appUed to the founding, building, and finishing of 

lo the same." 

This condition carried the bill through ; for the mem- 
bers, who had opposed the grant, and now conceived they 
might have the credit of being charitable without the ex- 
pense, agreed to its passage ; and then, in soliciting sub- 

i5Scriptions among the people, we urged the conditional 
promise of the law as an additional motive to give, since 
every man's donation would be doubled ; thus the clause 
worked both ways. The subscriptions accordingly soon 
exceeded the requisite sum, and we claimed and received 

20 the public gift, which enabled us to carry the design into 
execution. A convenient and handsome building was 
soon erected : the institution has by constant experience 
been found useful, and flourishes to this day; and I do 
not remember any of my political manoeuvres, the success 

25 of which gave me at the time more pleasure, or wherein, 
after thinking of it, I more easily excused myself for 
having made some use of cunning. 

It was about this time that another projector, the Rev. 
Gilbert Tennent, came to me with a request that I would 

30 assist him in procuring a subscription for erecting a new 



Franklin's Autobiography 209 

meeting-house. It was to be for the use of a congrega- 
tion he had gathered among the Presbyterians, who were 
originally disciples of Mr. Whitefield. UnwilHng to make 
myself disagreeable to my fellow-citizens by too fre- 
quently soliciting their contributions, I absolutely refused. 5 
He then desired I would furnish him with a list of the 
names of persons I knew by experience to be generous and 
public-spirited. I thought it would be unbecoming in 
me, after their kind compliance with my solicitations, to 
mark them out to be worried by other beggars, and there- 10 
fore refused also to give such a Hst. He then desired I 
would at least give him my advice. ^^ That I will readily 
do," said I ; ** and, in the first place, I advise you to 
apply to all those whom you know will give something ; 
next, to those whom you are uncertain whether they will 15 
give anything or not, and show them the list of those 
who have given ; and, lastly, do not neglect those who 
you are sure will give nothing, for in some of them you 
may be mistaken." He laughed and thanked me, and said 
he would take my advice. He did so, for he asked of 20 
everybody, and he obtained a much larger sum than he 
expected, with which he erected the capacious and very 
elegant meeting-house that stands in Arch street. 

Our city, though laid out with a beautiful regularity, 
the streets large, straight, and crossing each other at right 25 
angles, had the disgrace of suffering those streets to re- 
main long unpaved, and in wet weather the wheels of 
heavy carriages ploughed them into a quagmire, so that it 
was difficult to cross them ; and in dry weather the dust 
was offensive. I had lived near what was called the Jersey 3c 
franklin's autobiography — 14 



2IO Franklin's Autobiography 

Market, and saw with pain the inhabitants wading in mud 
while purchasing their provisions. A strip of ground 
down the middle of that market was at length paved with 
brick, so that, being once in the market, they had firm 
5 footing, but were often over shoes in dirt to get there. 
By talking and writing on the subject, I was at length 
instrumental in getting the street paved with stone between 
the market and the bricked foot-pavement, that was on 
each side next the houses. This, for some time, gave an 

lo easy access to the market dry-shod ; but, the rest of the 
street not being paved, whenever a carriage came out of 
the mud upon this pavement, it shook off and left its dirt 
upon it, and it was soon covered with mire, which was not 
removed, the city as yet having no scavengers.^ 

15 After some inquiry, I found a poor, industrious man, 
who was willing to undertake keeping the pavement clean, 
by sweeping it twice a week, carrying off the dirt from 
before all the neighbours' doors, for the sum of sixpence 
per month, to be paid by each house. I then wrote and 

20 printed a paper setting forth the advantages to the neigh- 
bourhood that might be obtained by this small expense ; 
the greater ease in keeping our houses clean, so much 
dirt not being brought in by people's feet ; the benefit to 
the shops by more custom, etc., etc., as buyers could 

25 more easily get at them ; and by not having, in windy 
weather, the dust blown in upon their goods, etc., etc. I 
sent one of these papers to each house, and in a day or 
two went round to see who would subscribe an agreement 
to pay these sixpences ; it was unanimously signed, and 
1 Street cleaners. 



Franklin's Autobiography 211 

for a time well executed. All the inhabitants of the city 
were dehghted with the cleanHness of the pavement 
that surrounded the market, it being a convenience to 
all, and this raised a general desire to have all the streets 
paved, and made the people more wilHng to submit to a 5 
tax for that purpose. 

After some time I drew a bill for paving the city, and 
brought it into the Assembly. It was just before I went 
to England, in 1757, and did not pass till I was gone, 
and then with an alteration in the mode of assessment, 10 
which I thought not for the better, but with an additional 
provision for Hghting as well as paving the streets, which 
was a great improvement. It was by a private person, 
the late Mr. John Clifton, his giving a sample of the utility 
of lamps, by placing one at his door, that the people 15 
were first impressed with the idea of enlighting all the 
city. The honour of this public benefit has also been 
ascribed to me, but it belongs truly to that gentleman. I 
did but follow his example, and have only some merit to 
claim respecting the form of our lamps, as differing from 20 
the globe lamps we were at first supplied with from Lon- 
don. Those we found inconvenient in these respects : 
they admitted no air below; the smoke, therefore, did 
not readily go out above, but circulated in the globe, 
lodged on its inside, and soon obstructed the light they 25 
were intended to afford ; giving, besides, the daily trouble 
of wiping them clean ; and an accidental stroke on one 
of them would demolish it, and render it totally useless. 
I therefore suggested the composing them of four flat 
panes, with a long funnel above to draw up the smoke, 30 



212 Franklin's Autobiography 

and crevices admitting air below, to facilitate the ascent 
of the smoke ; by this means they were kept clean, and 
did not grow dark in a few hours, as the London lamps 
do, but continued bright till morning, and an accidental 
5 stroke would generally break but a single pane, easily 
repaired. 

I have sometimes wondered that the Londoners did 
not, from the effect holes in the bottom of the globe 
lamps used at Vauxhall have in keeping them clean, learn 

loto have such holes in their street lamps. But, these 
holes being made for another purpose, viz., to communi- 
cate flame more suddenly to the wick by a little flax 
hanging down through them, the other use, of letting in 
air, seems not to have been thought of; and therefore, 

15 after the lamps have been lit a few hours, the streets of 
London are very poorly illuminated. 

The mention of these improvements puts me in mind 
of one I proposed, when in London, to Dr. Fothergill, who 
was among the best men I have known, and a great pro- 

2omoter of useful projects. I had observed that the streets, 
when dry, were never swept, and the light dust carried 
away ; but it was suffered to accumulate till wet weather 
reduced it to mud, and then, after lying some days so 
deep on the pavement that there was no crossing but in 

25 paths kept clean by poor people with brooms, it was with 
great labour raked together and thrown up into carts open 
above, the sides of which suffered some of the slush at 
every jolt on the pavement to shake out and fall, 
sometimes to the annoyance of foot-passengers. The 

30 reason given for not sweeping the dusty streets was, 



Franklin's Autobiography 213 

that the dust would fly into the windows of shops and 
houses. 

An accidental occurrence had instructed me how much 
sweeping might be done in a little time. I found at my 
door in Craven street, one morning, a poor woman sweep- 5 
ing my pavement with a birch broom ; she appeared very 
pale and feeble, as just come out of a fit of sickness. I 
asked who employed her to sweep there; she said, ^-No- 
body, but I am very poor and in distress, and I sweeps 
before gentlefolkses doors, and hopes they will give me 10 
something." I bid her sweep the whole street clean, and 
I would give her a shilling ; this was at nine o'clock ; at 
12 she came for the shilling. From the slowness I saw 
at first in her working, I could scarce believe that the 
work was done so soon, and sent my servant to examine 15 
it, who reported that the whole street was swept perfectly 
clean, and all the dust placed in the gutter, which was in 
the middle ; and the next rain washed it quite away, so 
that the pavement and even the kennel ^ were perfectly 
clean. 20 

I then judged that, if that feeble woman could sweep 
such a street in three hours, a strong, active man might 
have done it in half the time. And here let me remark the 
convenience of having but one gutter in such a narrow 
street, running down its middle, instead of two, one on 25 
each side, near the footway ; for where all the rain that 
falls on a street runs from the sides and meets in the 
middle, it forms there a current strong enough to wash 
away all the mud it meets with ; but when divided into 
1 Gutter. 



214 Franklin's Autobiography 

two channels, it is often too weak to cleanse either, and 
only makes the mud it finds more fluid, so that the wheels 
of carriages and feet of horses throw and dash it upon 
the foot-pavement, which is thereby rendered foul and 
5 shppery, and sometimes splash it upon those who are 
walking. My proposal, communicated to the good doctor, 
was as follows : 

" For the more effectual cleaning and keeping clean 
the streets of London and Westminster, it is proposed 

lothat the several watchmen be contracted with to have 
the dust swept up in dry seasons, and the mud raked up 
at other times, each in the several streets and lanes of 
his round ; that they be furnished with brooms and other 
proper instruments for these purposes, to be kept at their 

IS respective stands, ready to furnish the poor people they 
may employ in the service. 

^^ That in the dry summer months the dust be all swept 
up into heaps at proper distances, before the shops and 
windows of houses are usually opened, when the scav- 

2oengers, with close-covered carts, shall also carry it all 
away. 

*^ That the mud, when raked up, be not left in heaps to 
be spread abroad again by the wheels of carriages and 
trampling of horses, but that the scavengers be provided 

25 with bodies of carts, not placed high upon wheels, but 
low upon sliders,^ with lattice bottoms, which, being cov- 
ered with straw, will retain the mud thrown into them, and 
permit the water to drain from it, whereby it will become 
much lighter, water making the greatest part of its weight ; 
1 Runners, — they were mounted like sleighs. 



Franklin's Autobiography 215 

these bodies of carts to be placed at convenient distances, 
and the mud brought to them in wheelbarrows; they 
remaining where placed till the mud is drained, and then 
horses brought to draw them away." 

I have since had doubts of the practicabihty of the 5 
latter part of this proposal, on account of the narrowness 
of some streets, and the difficulty of placing the draining- 
sleds so as not to encumber too much the passage ; but 
I am still of opinion that the former, requiring the dust 
to be swept up and carried away before the shops are 10 
open, is very practicable in the summer, when the days 
are long ; for, in walking through the Strand and Fleet 
street one morning at seven o'clock, I observed there was 
not one shop open, though it had been daylight and the 
sun up above three hours ; the inhabitants of London 15 
choosing voluntarily to live much by candle light, and 
sleep by sunshine, and yet often complain, a Httle absurdly, 
of the duty on candles, and the high price of tallow\ 

Some may think these trifling matters not worth mind- 
ing or relating ; but when they consider that though dust 20 
blown into the eyes of a single person, or into a single 
shop on a windy day, is but of small importance, yet the 
great number of the instances in a populous city, and its 
frequent repetitions give it weight and consequence, per- 
haps they will not censure very severely those who be- 25 
stow some attention to affairs of this seemingly low 
nature. Human felicity is produced not so much by 
great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by 
little advantages that occur every day. Thus, if you 
teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his 30 



2i6 Franklin^s Autobiography- 

razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness 
of his Hfe than in giving him a thousand guineas. The 
money may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of 
having fooHshly consumed it ; but in the other case, 
she escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, 
and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, 
and dull razors ; he shaves when most convenient to him, 
and enjoys daily the pleasure of its being done with a 
good instrument. With these sentiments I have hazarded 
lothe few preceding pages, hoping they may afford hints 
which some time or other may be useful to a city I love, 
having hved many years in it very happily, and perhaps 
to some of our towns in America. 

Having been for some time employed by the post- 
15 master-general of America as his comptroller in regu- 
lating several offices, and bringing the officers to account, 
I was, upon his death, in 1753, appointed, jointly with 
Mr. William Hunter, to succeed him, by a commission 
from the postmaster-general in England. The American 
20 office never had hitherto paid anything to that of Britain. 
We were to have six hundred pounds a year between us, 
if we could make that sum out of the profits of the office. 
To do this, a variety of improvements were necessary ; 
some of these were inevitably at first expensive, so that in 
25 the first four years the office became above nine hundred 
pounds in debt to us. But it soon after began to repay 
us ; and before I was displaced by a freak of the ministers, 
of which I shall speak hereafter, we had brought it to 
yield three times as much clear revenue to the crown 
30 as the post-office of Ireland. Since that imprudent 



Franklin's Autobiography 217 

transaction, they have received from it — not one far- 
thing 1 

The business of the post-office occasioned my taking a 
journey this year to New England, where the College of 
Cambridge, of their own motion, presented me with the 5 
degree of Master of Arts. Yale College, in Connecticut, 
had before made me a similar compHment Thus, with- 
out studying in any college, I came to partake of their 
honours. They were conferred in consideration of my 
improvements and discoveries in the electric branch of 10 
natural philosophy. 

In 1754, war with France being again apprehended, a 
congress of commissioners from the different colonies 
was, by an order of the Lords of Trade, to be assembled at 
x\lbany, there to confer with the chiefs of the Six Nations 15 
concerning the means of defending both their country 
and ours. Governor Hamilton, having received this 
order, acquainted the House with it, requesting they 
would furnish proper presents for the Indians, to be 
given on this occasion; and naming the speaker (Mr. 20 
Norris) and myself to join Mr. Thomas Penn and Mr. Sec- 
retary Peters as commissioners to act for Pennsylvania. 
The House approved the nomination, and provided the 
goods for the present, and though they did not much like 
treating out of the provinces ; and we met the other 25 
commissioners at Albany about the middle of June. 

In our way thither, I projected and drew, a plan for 
the union of all the colonies under one government, so 
far as might be necessary for defence, and other im- 
portant general purposes. As we passed through New 30 



21 8 Franklin's Autobiography 

York, I had there shown my project to Mr. James Alex- 
ander and Mr. Kennedy, two gentlemen of great know- 
ledge in public affairs, and, being fortified by their 
approbation, I ventured to lay it before the Congress. 
5 It then appeared that several of the commissioners had 
formed plans of the same kind. A previous question was 
first taken, whether a union should be established, which 
passed in the affirmative unanimously. A committee was 
then appointed, one member from each colony, to con- 

lo sider the several plans and report. Mine happened to be 
preferred, and, with a few amendments, was accordingly 
reported. 

By this plan the general government was to be adminis- 
tered by a president-general, appointed and supported by 

15 the crown, and a grand council was to be chosen by the 
representatives of the people of the several colonies, 
met in their respective assemblies. The debates upon it 
in Congress went on daily, hand in hand with the Indian 
business. Many objections and difficulties were started, 

20 but at length they were all overcome, and the plan was 
unanimously agreed to, and copies ordered to be trans- 
mitted to the Board of Trade and to the assemblies 
of the several provinces. Its fate was singular : the 
assemblies did not adopt it, as they all thought there was 

25 too much prerogative^ in it, and in England it was 
judged to have too much of the democratic. The Board 
of Trade therefore did not approve of it, nor recom- 
mend it for the approbation of his majesty ; but another 
scheme was formed, supposed to answer the same purpose 
1 Royal authority. 



Franklin's Autobiography 219 

better, whereby the governors of the provinces, with 
some members of their respective councils, were to 
meet and order the raising of troops, building of forts, 
etc., and to draw on the treasury of Great Britain for the 
expense, which was afterwards to be refunded by an acts 
of Parhament laying a tax on America. My plan, with 
my reasons in support of it, is to be found among my 
pohtical papers that are printed. 

Being the winter following in Boston, I had much 
conversation with Governor Shirley upon both the plans. 10 
Part of what passed between us on the occasion may 
also be seen among those papers. The different and 
contrary reasons of dislike to my plan makes me suspect 
that it was really the true medium; and I am still of 
opinion it would have been happy for both sides the 15 
water if it had been adopted. The colonies, so united, 
would have been sufficiently strong to have defended 
themselves ; there would then have been no need of 
troops from England ; of course, the subsequent pretence 
for taxing America, and the bloody contest it occasioned, 20 
would have been avoided. But such mistakes are not 
new ; history is full of the errors of states and princes. 

*' Look round the habitable world, how few 
Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue ! " 

Those who govern, having much business on their 25 
hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of con- 
sidering and carrying into execution new projects. The 
best public measures are therefore seldom adopted fro ??i 
previous wisdom, biitfo7xed by the occasion. 



220 Franklin's Autobiography 

The Governor of Pennsylvania, in sending it down to 
the Assembly, expressed his approbation of the plan, " as 
appearing to him to be drawn up with great clearness 
and strength of judgement, and therefore recommended 
5 it as well worthy of their closest and most serious atten- 
tion." The House, however, by the management of a 
certain member, took it up when I happened to be 
absent, which I thought not very fair, and reprobated it 
without paying any attention to it at all, to my no small 

lo mortification. 

In my journey to Boston this year, I met at New York 
with our new governor, Mr. Morris, just arrived there 
from England, with whom I had been before intimately 
acquainted. He brought a commission to supersede Mr. 

15 Hamilton, who, tired with the disputes his proprietary in- 
structions subjected him to, had resigned. Mr. Morris asked 
me if I thought he must expect as uncomfortable an admin- 
istration. I said, " No ; you may, on the contrary, have 
a very comfortable one, if you will only take care not 

20 to enter into any dispute with the Assembly." " My dear 
friend," says he, pleasantly, " how can you advise my 
avoiding disputes? You know I love disputing; it is 
one of my greatest pleasures; however, to show the 
regard I have for your counsel, I promise you I will, if 

25 possible, avoid them." He had some reason for loving 
to dispute, being eloquent, an acute sophister, and, there- 
fore, generally successful in argumentative conversation. 
He had been brought up to it from a boy, his father, as 
I have heard, accustoming his children to dispute with 

30 one another for his diversion, while sitting at table after 



Franklin's Autobiography 221 

dinner ; but I think the practice was not wise ; for, in 
the course of my observation, these disputing, contra- 
dicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate 
in their affairs. They get victory sometimes, but they 
never get good will, which would be of more use to 5 
them. We parted, he going to Philadelphia, and I to 
Boston. 

In returning, I met at New York with the votes of the 
Assembly, by which it appeared that, notwithstanding his 
promise to me, he and the House were already in high 10 
contention ; and it w^as a continual battle between them 
as long as he retained the government. I had my share 
of it ; for, as soon as I got back to my seat in the Assem- 
bly, I was put on every committee for answering his 
speeches and messages, and by the committees always 15 
desired to make the drafts.-^ Our answers, as well as his 
messages, were often tart, and sometimes indecently 
abusive ; and, as he knew I wrote for the Assembly, one 
might have imagined that, when w^e met, we could 
hardly avoid cutting throats ; but he was so good-natured 20 
a man that no personal difference betw^een him and me 
was occasioned by the contest^ and we often dined 
together. 

One afternoon, in the height of this public quarrel we 
met in the street. " FrankHn," says he, ^^ you must go 25 
home with me and spend the evening ; I am to have 
some company that you will Hke " ; and, taking me by 
the arm, he led me to his house. In gay conversation 
over our wine, after supper, he told us, jokingly, that he 
1 Outline of public documents. 



222 Franklin's Autobiography 

much admired the idea of Sancho Panza, who, when it was 
proposed to give him a government, requested it might be a 
government oi blacks, as then, if he could not agree with his 
people, he might sell them. One of his friends, who sat 
5 next to me, says, '^ FrankHn, why do you continue to side 
with these damned Quakers? Had not you better sell 
them? The proprietor would give you a good price." 
"The governor," says I, "has not yet blacked them, 
enough." He, indeed, had laboured hard to blacken the 

lo Assembly in all his messages, but they wiped off his colour- 
ing as fast as he laid it on, and placed it, in return, thick 
upon his own face ; so that, finding he was likely to be 
negrofied himself, he, as well as Mr. Hamilton, grew tired 
of the contest, and quitted the government. 

15 These public quarrels were all at bottom owing to the 
proprietaries, our hereditary ^ governors, who, when any ex- 
pense was to be incurred for the defence of their province, 
with incredible meanness instructed their deputies to pass 
no act for levying the necessary taxes, unless their vast es- 

20 tates were in the same act expressly excused ; and they had 
even taken bonds of these deputies to observe such in- 
structions. The Assembhes for three years held out 
against this injustice, though constrained to bend at last. 
At length Captain Denny, who was Governor Morris's 

25 successor, ventured to disobey those instructions ; how 
that was brought about I shall show hereafter. 

But I am got forward too fast with my story : there are 
still some transactions to be mentioned that happened 
daring the administration of Governor Morris. 

1 My acts in Morris's time, military, etc. — \^Marg. note. ] 



Franklin's Autobiography 223 

War being in a manner commenced with France, the 
government of Massachusetts Bay projected an attack 
upon Crown Point, and sent Mr. Quincy to Pennsylvania, 
and Mr. Pownall, afterward Governor Pownall, to New 
York, to solicit assistance. As I was in the Assembly, 5 
knew its temper, and was Mr. Quincy's countryman, he 
appHed to me for my influence and assistance. I dictated 
his address to them, which was well received. They voted 
an aid of ten thousand pounds, to be laid out in provisions. 
But the governor refusing his assent to their bill (which 10 
included this with other sums granted for the use of 
the crown), unless a clause were inserted exempting the 
proprietary estate from bearing any part of the tax that 
would be necessary, the Assembly, though very desirous of 
making their grant to New England effectual, were at 15 
a loss how to accomplish it. Mr. Quincy laboured hard 
with the governor to obtain his assent, but he was ob- 
stinate. 

I then suggested a method of doing the business with- 
out the governor, by orders on the trustees of the Loan 20 
Office, which, by law, the Assembly had the right of 
drawing. There was, indeed, little or no money at that 
time in the office, and therefore I proposed that the or- 
ders should be payable in a year, and to bear an interest 
of five per cent. With these orders I supposed the pro- 25 
visions might easily be purchased. The Assembly, with 
very little hesitation, adopted the proposal. The orders 
were immediately printed, and I was one of the committee 
directed to sign and dispose of them. The fund for 
paying them was the interest of all the paper currency 30 



224 Franklin's Autobiography 

then extant in the province upon loan, together with the 
revenue arising from the excise, which being known to be 
more than sufficient, they obtained instant credit, and 
were not only received in payment for the provisions, but 
5 many moneyed people, who had cash lying by them, 
vested it in those orders, which they found advantageous, 
as they bore interest while upon hand, and might on any 
occasion be used as money ; so that they were eagerly 
all bought up, and in a few weeks none of them were to 

lo be seen. Thus this important affair was by my means com- 
pleted. Mr. Quincy returned thanks to the Assembly in 
a handsome memorial, went home highly pleased with the 
success of his embassy, and ever after bore for me the 
most cordial and affectionate friendship. 

15 The British government, not choosing to permit the 
union of the colonies as proposed at Albany, and to trust 
that union with their defence, lest they should thereby 
grow too military, and feel their own strength, suspicions 
and jealousies at this time being entertained of them, sent 

20 over General Braddock with two regiments of regular 
English troops for that purpose. He landed at Alexan- 
dria, in Virginia, and thence marched to Frederictown, in 
Maryland, where he halted for carriages. Our Assembly 
apprehending, from some information, that he had con- 

25 ceived violent prejudices against them, as averse to the 
service, wished me to wait upon him, not as from them, 
but as postmaster-general, under the guise of proposing 
to settle with him the mode of conducting with most celerity 
and certainty the despatches between him and the gov- 

30 ernors of the several provinces, with whom he must 



Franklin's Autobiography 225 

necessarily have continual correspondence, and of which 
they proposed to pay the expense. My son accompanied 
me on this journey. 

We found the general at Frederictown, waiting im- 
patiently for the return of those he had sent through the 5 
back parts of ^Maryland and Virginia to collect waggons. 
I stayed with him several days, dined wuth him daily, and 
had full opportunity of removing all his prejudices, by the 
information of what the Assembly had before his arrival 
actually done, and were still willing to do, to facilitate his 10 
operations. When I was about to depart, the returns of 
waggons to be obtained were brought in, by which it 
appeared that they amounted only to twenty-five, and not 
all of those were in serviceable condition. The general 
and all the officers were surprised, declared the expedi- 15 
tion was then at an end, being impossible, and exclaimed 
against the ministers for ignorantly landing them in a 
country destitute of the means of conveying their stores, 
baggage, etc., not less than one hundred and fifty waggons 
being necessary. 20 

I happened to say I thought it was pity they had not 
been landed rather in Pennsylvania, as in that country 
almost every farmer had his waggon. The general 
eagerly laid hold of my words, and said, ^' Then you, sir, 
who are a man of interest there, can probably procure 25 
them for us; and I beg you will undertake it." I asked 
what terms were to be offered the owners of the waggons ; 
and I was desired to put on paper the terms that appeared 
to me necessary. This I did, and they were agreed to, 
and a commission and instructions accordingly prepared 30 
franklin's autobiography — 1< 



226 Franklin's Autobiography 

immediately. What those terms were will appear in the 
advertisement I pubhshed as soon as I arrived at Lan- 
caster, which being, from the great and sudden effect it 
produced, a piece of some curiosity, I shall insert it at 
5 length, as follows : 

" Advertisement. 

" Lancaster, April 26, 1755. 

" Whereas, one hundred and fifty waggons, with four 
horses to each waggon, and fifteen hundred saddle or 

10 pack horses, are wanted for the service of his majesty's 
forces now about to rendezvous at Will's Creek, and his 
excellency General Braddock having been pleased to 
empower me to contract for the hire of the same, I hereby 
give notice that I shall attend for that purpose at Lan- 

15 caster from this day to next Wednesday evening, and at 
York from next Thursday morning till Friday evening, 
where I shall be ready to agree for waggons and teams, or 
single horses, on the following terms, viz. : i. That there 
shall be paid for each waggon, with four good horses and a 

20 driver, fifteen shillings per diem ; and for each able 
horse with a pack-saddle, or other saddle and furniture, 
two shiUings per diem ; and for each able horse without 
a saddle, eighteen pence per diem. 2. That the pay 
commence from the time of their joining the forces at 

25 Will's Creek, which must be on or before the 20th of May 
ensuing, and that a reasonable allowance be paid over and 
above for the time necessary for their travelling to Will's 
Creek and home again after their discharge. 3. Each 
waggon and team, and every saddle or pack horse, is to 



Franklin's Autobiography 227 

be valued by indifferent persons chosen between me and 
the owner ; and in case of the loss of any waggon, team, 
or other horse in the service, the price according to such 
valuation is to be allowed and paid. 4. Seven days' pay 
is to be advanced and paid in hand by me to the owners 
of each waggon and team, or horse, at the time of con- 
tracting, if required, and the remainder to be paid by 
General Braddock, or by the paymaster of the army, at 
the time of their discharge, or from time to time, as it shall 
be demanded. 5. No drivers of waggons, or persons 10 
taking care of the hired horses, are on any account to be 
called upon to do the duty of soldiers, or be otherwise 
employed than in conducting or taking care of their 
carriages or horses. 6. All oats, Indian corn, or other 
forage that waggons or horses bring to the camp, more 15 
than is necessary for the subsistence of the horses, is to 
be taken for the use of the army, and a reasonable price 
paid for the same. 

"Note. — My son, Wilham Frankhn, is empowered to 
enter into like contracts with any person in Cumberland 20 
county. B. Franklin." 

*' To the inhabitants of the Counties of Lancaster, 
York a7id Cuinberland. 

" Friends and Countrymen, 

" Being occasionally at the camp at Frederic a few 25 
days since, I found the general and officers extremely 
exasperated on account of their not being suppUed with 
horses and carriages, which had been expected from this 



228 Franklin's Autobiography 

province, as most able to furnish them ; but, through the 
dissensions between our governor and Assembly, money 
had not been provided, nor any steps taken for that 
purpose. 
5 ^' It was proposed to send an armed force immediately 
into these counties, to seize as many of the best carriages and 
horses as should be wanted, and compel as many persons 
into the service as would be necessary to drive and take 
care of them. 

lo " I apprehended that the progress of British soldiers 
through these counties on such an occasion, especially 
considering the temper they are in, and their resent- 
ment against us, would be attended with many and 
great inconveniences to the inhabitants, and therefore 

15 more willingly took the trouble of trying first what 
might be done by fair and equitable means. The people 
of these back counties have lately complained to the 
Assembly that a sufficient currency was wanting ; you 
have an opportunity of receiving and dividing among 

20 you a very considerable sum ; for, if the service of this 
expedition should continue, as it is more than probable 
it will, for one hundred and twenty days, the hire of 
these waggons and horses will amount to upward of 
thirty thousand pounds, which will be paid you in silver 

25 and gold of the king's money. 

'' The service will be light and easy, for the army 
will scarce march above twelve miles per day, and the 
waggons and baggage-horses, as they carry those things 
that are absolutely necessary to the welfare of the army, 

30 must march with the army, and no faster ; and are, for the 



Franklin's Autobiography 229 

army's sake, always placed where they can be most secure, 
whether in a march or in a camp. 

^' If you are really, as I believe you are, good and 
loyal subjects to his majesty, you may now do a most 
acceptable service, and make it easy to yourselves ; for 5 
three or four of such as cannot separately spare from the 
business of their plantations a waggon and four horses and 
a driver, may do it together, one furnishing the waggon, 
another one or two horses, and another the driver, and 
divide the pay proportionably between you; but if you do 10 
not this service to your king and country voluntarily, 
when such good pay and reasonable terms are offered to 
you, your loyalty will be strongly suspected. The king's 
business must be done ; so many brave troops, come so 
far for your defence, must not stand idle through your 15 
backwardness to do what may be reasonably expected 
from you ; waggons and horses must be had ; violent 
measures will probably be used, and you will be left to 
seek for a recompense where you can find it, and your 
case, perhaps, be Httle pitied or regarded. ao 

'^ I have no particular interest in this affair, as, except 
the satisfaction of endeavouring to do good, I shall have 
only my labour for my pains. If this method of obtain- 
ing the waggons and horses is not likely to succeed, I am 
obliged to send word to the general in fourteen days ; 25 
and I suppose Sir John St. Clair, the hussar, with a body 
of soldiers, will immediately enter the province for the 
purpose, which I shall be sorry to hear, because I am 
very sincerely and truly your friend and well-wisher, 

^^ B. Franklin." 30 



230 Franklin's Autobiography 

I received of the general about eight hundred pounds, 
to be disbursed in advance-money to the waggon owners, 
etc.; but that sum being insufficient, I advanced upward 
of two hundred pounds more, and in two weeks the one 

5 hundred and fifty waggons, with two hundred and fifty- 
nine carrying horses, were on their march for the camp. 
The advertisement promised payment according to the 
valuation, in case any waggon or horse should be lost. 
The owners, however, alleging they did not know General 

10 Braddock, or what dependence might be had on his 
promise, insisted on my bond for the performance, which 
I accordingly gave them. 

While I was at the camp, supping one evening with the 
officers of Colonel Dunbar's regiment he represented to 

15 me his concern for the subalterns^ who, he said, were 
generally not in affluence and could ill afford, in this 
dear country, to lay in the stores that might be necessary 
in so long a march, through a wilderness, where nothing 
was to be purchased. I commiserated their case, and re- 

20 solved to endeavour procuring them some relief. I 
said nothing, however, to him of my intention, but 
wrote the next morning to the committee of the Assem- 
bly, who had the disposition of some public money, 
warmly recommending the case of these officers to their 

25 consideration, and proposing that a present should be 
sent them of necessaries and refreshments. My son, 
who had some experience of a camp hfe, and of its 
wants, drew up a list for me, which I enclosed in my 
letter. The committee approved, and used such diligence 

30 1 Subordinates. 



Franklin's Autobiography 231 

that, conducted by my son, the stores arrived at the 
camp as soon as the waggons. They consisted of twenty 
parcels, each containing 

6 lbs. loaf sugar. I Gloucester cheese. 

6 lbs. good Muscovado do. I keg containing 20 lbs. good 5 
I lb. good green tea. butter. 

I lb. good bohea do. 2 doz, old ^Madeira wine. 

6 lbs. good ground coffee. 2 gallons Jamaica spirits. 

6 lbs. chocolate. i bottle flour of mustard. 

1-2 cwt. best white biscuit. 2 well-cured hams. 10 

1-2 lb. pepper. 1-2 dozen dried tongues. 
I quart best white wine vine- 6 lbs. rice. 

gar. 6 lbs. raisins. 

These twenty parcels, well packed, were placed on as 
many horses, each parcel, with the horse, being intended 15 
as a present for one officer. They were very thankfully 
received, and the kindness acknowledged by letters to me 
from the colonels of both regiments, in the most grateful 
terms. The general, too, was highly satisfied with my 
conduct in procuring him the waggons, etc., and readily 20 
paid my account of disbursements, thanking me repeat- 
edly, and requesting my farther assistance in sending 
provisions after him. I undertook this also, and was 
busily employed in it till we heard of his defeat, advanc- 
ing for the service of my own money, upwards of one 25 
thousand pounds sterling, of which I sent him an ac- 
count. It came to his hands, luckily for me, a few days 
before the battle, and he returned me immediately an 
order on the paymaster for the round sum of one thou- 
sand pounds, leaving the remainder to the next account. 30 



232 Franklin's Autobiography 

I consider this payment as good luck, having never been 
able to obtain that remainder, of which more hereafter. 

This general was, I think, a brave man, and might 
probably have made a figure as a good officer in some 

5 European war. But he had too much self-confidence, 
too high an opinion of the vaUdity ^ of regular troops, and 
too mean a one of both Americans and Indians. George 
Croghan, our Indian interpreter, joined him on his march 
with one hundred of those people, who might have been 

10 of great use to his army as guides, scouts, etc., if he had 
treated them kindly; but he slighted and neglected 
them, and they gradually left him. 

In conversation with him one day, he was giving me 
some account of his intended progress. " xA^fter taking 

15 Fort Duquesne," says he, ^' I am to proceed to Niagara ; 
and, having taken that, to Frontenac, if the season will 
allow time ; and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can 
hardly detain me above three or four days ; and then I 
see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara." 

20 Having before revolved in my mind the long line his army 
must make in their march by a very narrow road, to 
be cut for them through the woods and bushes, and also 
what I had read of a former defeat of fifteen hundred 
French, who invaded the Iroquois country, I had con- 

25 ceived some doubts and some fears for the event of the 
campaign. But I ventured only to say, '^ To be sure, sir, 
if you arrive well before Duquesne, with these fine troops, 
so well provided with artillery, that place not yet com- 
pletely fortified, and as we hear with no very strong garri- 

1 Worth. 



Franklin's Autobiography 2^2 

son, can probably make but a short resistance. The only 
danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march is from 
ambuscades of Indians, who, by constant practice, are 
dexterous in laying and executing them ; and the slender 
Une, near four miles long, which your army must make, 5 
may expose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and 
to be cut like a thread into several pieces, which, from 
their distance, cannot come up in time to support each 
other." 

He smiled at my ignorance, and replied, ^^ These 10 
savages may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to your raw 
American mihtia, but upon the king's regular and dis- 
ciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any 
impression." I was conscious of an impropriety in my 
disputing with a military man in matters of his profession, 15 
and said no more. The enemy, however, did not take 
the advantage of his army which I apprehended its long 
line of march exposed it to, but let it advance without 
interruption till within nine miles of the place ; and then, 
when more in a body (for it had just passed a river, where 20 
the front had halted till all were come over), and in a 
more open part of the woods than any it had passed, 
attacked its advanced guard by heavy fire from behind 
trees and bushes, which was the first inteUigence the 
general had of an enemy's being near him. This guard 25 
being disordered, the general hurried the troops up to 
their assistance, which was done in great confusion, through 
waggons, baggage, and cattle ; and presently the fire 
came upon their flank : the officers, being on horseback, 
were more easily distinguished, picked out as marks, and 3'^ 



234 Franklin's Autobiography 

fell very fast ; and the soldiers were crowded together in 
a huddle, having or hearing no orders, and standing to be 
shot at till two-thirds of them were killed ; and then, 
being seized with a panic, the whole fled with precipita- 
5 tion. 

The waggoners took each a horse out of his team and 
scampered ; their example was immediately followed by 
others ; so that all the waggons, provisions, artillery, and 
stores were left to the enemy. The general, being 

lo wounded, was brought off with difficulty; his secretary, 
Mr. Shirley, was killed by his side ; and out of eighty-six 
officers, sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven 
hundred and fourteen men killed out of eleven hundred. 
These eleven hundred had been picked men from the 

15 whole army ; the rest had been left behind with Colonel 
Dunbar, who was to follow with the heavier part of the 
stores, provisions, and baggage. The flyers, not being 
pursued, arrived at Dunbar's camp, and the panic they 
brought with them instantly seized him and all his 

20 people ; and, though he had now above one thousand men, 
and the enemy who had beaten Braddock did not at 
most exceed four hundred Indians and French together, 
instead of proceeding, and endeavouring to recover some 
of the lost honour, he ordered all the stores, ammunition, 

25 etc., to be destroyed, that he might have more horses to 
assist his flight towards the settlements, and less lumber 
to remove. He was there met with requests from the 
governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, that 
he would post his troops on the frontier, so as to afford 

30 some protection to the inhabitants ; but he continued his 



Franklin's Autobiography 235 

hasty march through all the country, not thinking him- 
self safe till he arrived at Philadelphia, where the inhabit- 
ants could protect him. This whole transaction gave us 
Americans the first suspicion that our exalted ideas 
of the prowess of British regulars had not been wells 
founded. 

In their first march, too, from their landing till they got 
beyond the settlements, they had plundered and stripped 
the inhabitants, totally ruining some poor famihes, besides 
insulting, abusing, and confining the people if they re- 10 
monstrated. This was enough to put us out of conceit 
of such defenders, if we had really wanted any. How 
different was the conduct of our French friends in 1781, 
who, during a march through the most inhabited part of 
our country from Rhode Island to Virginia, near seven 15 
hundred miles, occasioned not the smallest complaint for 
the loss of a pig, a chicken, or even an apple. 

Captain Orme, who was one of the general's aids-de- 
camp, and, being grievously wounded, was brought off 
w^ith him, and continued with him to his death, which 20 
happened in a few days, told me that he was totally silent 
all the first day, and at night only said, '^ Who luoiild 
have thought it ? " That he was silent again the following 
day, saying only at last, " We shall better know how to 
deal with the77i another time ;'' and died in a few min-25 
utes after. 

The secretary's papers with all the general's orders, 
instructions, and correspondence, falling into the enemy's 
hands, they selected and translated into French a number 
of the articles, which they printed, to prove the hostile 30 



236 Franklin's Autobiography 

intentions of the British court before the declaration of 
war. Among these I saw some letters of the general to 
the ministry, speaking highly of the great service I had 
rendered the army, and recommending me to their 
5 notice. David Hume, too, who was some years after 
secretary to Lord Hertford, when minister in France, and 
afterward to General Conway, when secretary of state, 
told me he had seen among the papers in that office, 
letters from Braddock highly recommending me. But, 

10 the expedition having been unfortunate, my service, it 
seems, was not thought of much value, for those recom- 
mendations were never of any use to me. 

As to rewards from himself, I asked only one, which 
was, that he would give orders to his officers not to enlist 

15 any more of our bought servants, and that he would dis- 
charge such as had been already enlisted. This he 
readily granted, and several were accordingly returned 
to their masters, on my apphcation. Dunbar, when the 
command devolved on him, was not so generous. He 

20 being at Philadelphia, on his retreat, or rather flight, 
I appHed to him for the discharge of the servants of three 
poor farmers of Lancaster county that he had enlisted, 
reminding him of the late general's orders on that head. 
He promised me that, if the masters would come to him 

25 at Trenton, where he should be in a few days on his 
march to New York, he would there deliver their men to 
them. They accordingly were at the expense and trouble 
of going to Trenton, and there he refused to perform his 
promise, to their great loss and disappointment. 

30 As soon as the loss of the waggons and horses was 



Franklin's Autobiography 237 

generally known, all the owners came upon me for the 
valuation which I had given bond to pay. Their de- 
mands gave me a great deal of trouble, my acquainting 
them that the money was ready in the paymaster's hands, 
but that orders for paying it must first be obtained 5 
from General Shirley, and my assuring them that I had 
appKed to that general by letter ; but, he being at a 
distance, an answer could not soon be received, and they 
must have patience, all this was not sufficient to satisfy, 
and some began to sue me. General Shirley at length 10 
relieved me from this terrible situation by appointing 
commissioners to examine the claims, and ordering pay- 
ment. They amounted to near twenty thousand pound, 
which to pay would have ruined me. 

Before we had the news of this defeat, the two 15 
Doctors Bond came to me with a subscription paper 
for raising money to defray the expense of a grand fire- 
work, which it was intended to exhibit at a rejoicing 
on receipt of the news of our taking Fort Duquesne. 
I looked grave, and said it would, I thought, be time 20 
enough to prepare for the rejoicing when we knew we 
should have occasion to rejoice. They seemed surprised 
that I did not immediately comply with their proposal. 
"Why," says one of them, "you surely don't suppose 
that the fort will not be taken?" "I don't know 25 
that it will not be taken, but I know that the events of 
war are subject to great uncertainty." I gave them the 
reasons of my doubting ; the subscription was dropped, 
and the projectors thereby missed the mortification they 
would have undergone if the firework had been prepared. 30 



238 Franklin's Autobiography 

Dr. Bond, on some other occasion afterward, said that he 
did not like Franklin's forebodings. 

Governor Morris, who had continually worried the 
Assembly with message after message before the defeat 

5 of Braddock, to beat them into the making of acts to 
raise money for the defence of the province, without 
taxing, among others, the proprietary estates, and had 
rejected all their bills for not having such an exempting 
clause, now redoubled his attacks with more hope of 

10 success, the danger and necessity being greater. The 
Assembly, however, continued firm, believing they had 
justice on their side, and that it would be giving up an 
essential right if they suffered the governor to amend 
their money-bills. In one of the last, indeed, which was 

15 for granting fifty thousand pounds, his proposed amend- 
ment was only of a single word. The bill expressed 
" that all estates, real and personal, were to be taxed, 
those of the proprietaries not excepted." His amend- 
ment was, for not read only : a small, but very material 

20 alteration. However, when the news of this disaster 
reached England, our friends there whom we had taken 
care to furnish with all the Assembly's answers to the 
governor's messages, raised a clamour against the pro- 
prietaries for their meanness and injustice in giving 

25 their governor such instructions; some going so far as 
to say that, by obstructing the defence of their province, 
they forfeited their right to it. They were intimidated 
by this, and sent orders to their receiver-general to add 
five thousand pounds of their money to whatever sum 

30 might be given by the Assembly for such purpose. 



Franklin's Autobiography 239 

This, being notified to the House, was accepted in 
lieu of their share of a general tax, and a new bill was 
formed, with an exempting clause, which passed accord- 
ingly. By this act I was appointed one of the com- 
missioners for disposing of the money, sixty thousands 
pounds. I had been active in modelling the bill and 
procuring its passage, and had, at the same time, drawn 
a bill for estabhshing and discipHning a voluntary militia, 
which I carried through the House without much diffi- 
culty, as care was taken in it to leave the Quakers at 10 
their liberty. To promote the association necessary to 
form the militia, I wrote a dialogue,^ stating and answer- 
ing all the objections I could think of to such a militia^ 
which was printed, and had, as I thought, great effect. 

While the several companies in the city and country 15 
were forming, and learning their exercise, the governor 
prevailed with me to take charge of our North-western 
frontier, which was infested by the enemy, and provide 
for the defence of the inhabitants by raising troops 
and building a line of forts. I undertook his military 20 
business, though I did not conceive myself well qualified 
for it. He gave me a commission with full powers, and 
a parcel of blank commissions for officers, to be given 
to whom I thought fit. I had but Httle difficulty in 
raising men, having soon five hundred and sixty under 25 
my command. My son, who had in the preceding war 
been an officer in the army raised against Canada, was 
my aid-de-camp, and of great use to me. The Indians 

1 This dialogue and the militia act are in the Gentie??ia7t^s 
Magazine for February and March, 1756. — [^Marg. 7iote.~\ 



240 Franklin's Autobiography 

had burned Gnadenhut, a village settled by the Mora- 
vians, and massacred the inhabitants ; but the place was 
Ihought a good situation for one of the forts. 

In order to march thither, I assembled the companies 

5 at Bethlehem, the chief establishment of those people. 
I was surprised to find it in so good a posture of defence ; 
the destruction of Gnadenhut had made them apprehend 
danger. The principal buildings were defended by a 
stockade;^ they had purchased a quantity of arms and 

10 ammunition from New York, and had even placed quan- 
tities of small paving stones between the windows of their 
high stone houses, for their women to throw down upon 
the heads of any Indians that should attempt to force 
into them. The armed brethren, too, kept watch, and 

15 relieved " as methodically as in any garrison town. In 
conversation with the bishop, Spangenberg, I mentioned 
this my surprise ; for, knowing they had obtained an act 
of Parliament exempting them from military duties in the 
colonies, I had supposed they were conscientiously scru- 

20 pulous of bearing arms. He answered me that it was not 
one of their established principles, but that, at the time 
of their obtaining that act, it was thought to be a prin- 
ciple with many of their people. On this occasion, how- 
ever, they, to their surprise, found it adopted by but a 

25 few. It seems they were either deceived in themselves, 
or deceived the Parliament ; but common sense, aided 
by present danger, will sometimes be too strong for 
whimsical opinions. 

1 A fortification consisting of logs placed upright in the ground. 

2 Changed guard. 



Franklin's Autobiography 241 

It was the beginning of January when we set out upon 
this business of building forts. I sent one detachment 
toward the Minisink, with instructions to erect one for 
the security of that upper part of the country, and 
another to the lower part, with similar instructions ; and 5 
I concluded to go myself with the rest of my force to 
Gnadenhut, where a fort was thought more immediately 
necessary. The Moravians procured me five waggons for 
our tools, stores, baggage, etc. 

Just before we left Bethlehem, eleven farmers, who had 10 
been driven from their plantations by the Indians, came 
to me requesting a supply of firearms, that they might go 
back and fetch off their cattle. I gave them each a gun 
with suitable ammunition. We had not marched many 
miles before it began to rain, and it continued raining all 15 
day; there were no habitations on the road to shelter us, 
till we arrived near night at the house of a German, where, 
and in his barn, we were all huddled together, as wet as 
water could make us. It was well we were not attacked 
in our march, for our arms were of the most ordinary 20 
sort, and our men could not keep their gun locks dry. 
The Indians are dexterous in contrivances for that pur- 
pose, which we had not. They met that day the eleven 
poor farmers above mentioned, and killed ten of them. 
The one who escaped informed that his and his com- 25 
panions' guns would not go off, the priming ^ being wet 
with the rain. 

The next day being fair, we continued our march, and 

^The flint locks then in use wqxq primed with powder ignited 
by a spark from a flint. 

franklin's autobiography — 16 



242 Franklin's Autobiography 

arrived at the desolated Gnadenhut. There was a saw- 
mill near, round which were left several piles of boards, 
with which we soon hutted ourselves ; an operation the 
more necessary at that inclement season, as we had no 
5 tents. Our first work was to bury more effectually the 
dead we found there who had been half interred by the 
country people. 

The next morning our fort was planned and marked 
out, the circumference measuring four hundred and fifty- 

10 five feet, which would require as many palisades ^ to be 
made of trees, one with another, of a foot diameter each. 
Our axes, of which we had seventy, were immediately 
set to work to cut down trees, and, our men being dex- 
terous in the use of them, great dispatch was made. See- 

15 ing the trees fall so fast, I had the curiosity to look at 
my watch when two men began to cut at a pine ; in six 
minutes they had it upon the ground, and I found it of 
fourteen inches diameter. Each pine made three pal- 
isades of eighteen feet long, pointed at one end. While 

20 these were preparing, our other men dug a trench all 
round, of three feet deep, in which the paUsades were to 
be planted; and, our waggons, the bodies being taken 
off, and the fore and hind wheels separated by taking out 
the pin which united the two parts of the perch,^ we had 

25 ten carriages, with two horses each, to bring the palisades 
from the woods to the spot. When they were set up, 
our carpenters built a stage of boards all round within, 
about six feet high, for the men to stand on when to fire 

1 Stakes. - A pole connecting the fore and hind gear of a 
waggon. 



Franklin's Autobiography 243 

through the loopholes. We had one swivel gun/ which 
we mounted on one of the angles, and fired it as soon as 
fixed, to let the Indians know, if any were within hearing, 
that w^e had such pieces ; and thus our fort, if such a 
magnificent name may be given to so miserable a stock- 5 
ade, was finished in a week, though it rained so hard 
every other day that the men could not work. 

This gave me occasion to observe, that, when men are 
employed, they are best contented ; for on the days they 
worked they were good-natured and cheerful, and, with 10 
the consciousness of having done a good day's work, they 
spent the evening jollily ; but on our idle days they were 
mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their pork, 
the bread, etc., and in continual ill-humour, which put me 
in mind of a sea captain, whose rule it was to keep his 15 
men constantly at work; and, when his mate once told 
him that they had done every thing, and there was 
nothing further to employ them about, '^ Ok,'' says he, 
" 7?iake them scour the anchor, '^ 

This kind of fort, however contemptible, is a sufficient 20 
defence against Indians, who have no cannon. Finding 
ourselves now posted securely, and having a place to re- 
treat to on occasion, we ventured out in parties to scour 
the adjacent country. We met with no Indians, but we 
found the places on the neighbouring hills where they had 25 
lain to watch our proceedings. There was an art in their 
contrivance of those places that seems worth mention. 
It being winter, a fire was necessary for them ; but a 

^A small cannon that could be turned on a swivel in different 
directions. 



,244 Franklin's Autobiography 

common fire on the surface of the ground would by its 
light have discovered their position at a distance. They 
had therefore dug holes in the ground about three feet 
diameter, and somewhat deeper ; we saw where they had 

5 with their hatchets cut off the charcoal from the sides of 
burnt logs lying in the woods. With these coals they had 
made small fires in the bottom of the holes, and we ob- 
served among the weeds and grass the prints of their 
bodies, made by their lying all round, with their legs hang- 

lo ing down in the holes to keep their feet warm, which, with 
them, is an essential point. This kind of fire, so managed, 
could not discover them, either by its light, flame, sparks, 
or even smoke : it appeared that their number was not 
great, and it seems they saw we were too many to be 

15 attacked by them with prospect of advantage. 

We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian min- 
ister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the men 
did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations. 
When they enlisted, they were promised, besides pay and 

ao provisions, a gill of rum a day, which was punctually served 
out to them, half in the morning, and the other half in the 
evening ; and I observed they were as punctual in attend- 
ing to receive it ; upon which I said to Mr. Beatty, " It 
is, perhaps, below the dignity of your profession to act as 

25 steward of the rum, but if you were to deal it out and only 
just after prayers, you would have them all about you." 
He liked the thought, undertook the office, and, with the 
help of a few hands to measure out the Hquor, executed 
it to satisfaction, and never were prayers more generally 

30 and more punctually attended ; so that I thought this 



Franklin's Autobiography 245 

method preferable to the punishment inflicted by some 
military laws for non-attendance on divine service. 

I had hardly finished this business, and got my fort well 
stored with provisions, when I received a letter from the 
governor, acquainting me that he had called the Assembly, 5 
and wished my attendance there, if the posture of affairs 
on the frontiers was such that my remaining there was no 
longer necessary. My friends, too, of the Assembly, 
pressing me by their letters to be, if possible, at the meet- 
ing, and my three intended forts being now completed, and 10 
the inhabitants contented to remain on their farms under 
that protection, I resolved to return ; the more wilHngly, 
as a New England officer. Colonel Clapham, experienced 
in Indian war, being on a visit to our establishment, con- 
sented to accept the command. I gave him a commis- 15 
sion, and, parading the garrison, had it read before them, 
and introduced him to them as an officer who, from his 
skill in military affairs, was much more fit to command 
them than myself; and, giving them a little exhortation, 
took my leave. I was escorted as far as Bethlehem, 20 
where I rested a few days to recover from the fatigue 1 
had undergone. The first night, being in a good bed, 
I could hardly sleep, it was so different from my hard lodg- 
ing on the floor of our hut at Gnaden wrapped only in 
a blanket or two. 25 

While at Bethlehem, I inquired a little into the practice 
of the Moravians : some of them had accompanied me, 
and all were very kind to me. I found they worked for 
a common stock, ate at common tables, and slept in 
common dormitories, 2;rent numbers together. In the 30 



246 Franklin's Autobiography 

dormitories I observed loopholes, at certain distances all 
along just under the ceiling, which I thought judiciously 
placed for change of air. I was at their church, where I 
was entertained with good music, the organ being ac- 

5 companied with violins, hautboys,^ flutes, clarinets, etc. 
I understood that their sermons were not usually preached 
to mixed congregations of men, women, and children, 
as is our common practice, but that they assembled 
sometimes the married men, at other times their wives, 

10 then the young men, the young women, and the little 
children, each division by itself. The sermon I heard 
was to the latter, who came in and were placed in rows on 
benches ; the boys under the conduct of a young man, their 
tutor, and the girls conducted by a young woman. The 

15 discourse seemed well adapted to their capacities, and was 
delivered in a pleasing, familiar manner, coaxing them, as 
it were, to be good. They behaved very orderly, but 
looked pale and unhealthy, which made me suspect they 
were kept too much within doors, or not allowed sufficient 

20 exercise. 

I inquired concerning the Moravian marriages, whether 
the report was true that they were by lot. I was told 
that lots were used only in particular cases ; that gen- 
erally, when a young man found himself disposed to marry, 

25 he informed the elders of his class, who consulted the 
elder ladies that governed the young women. As these 
elders of the different sexes were well acquainted with 
the tempers and dispositions of their respective pupils, 

1 Oboes: wind instruments like clarinets; derived from the 
French haut (high), bois (wood). 



Franklin's Autobiography 247 

they could best judge what matches were suitable, and 
their judgements were generally acquiesced in ; but if, 
for example, it should happen that two or three young 
women were found to be equally proper for the young 
man, the lot was then recurred to. I objected, if the 5 
matches are not made by the mutual choice of the parties, 
some of them may chance to be very unhappy. ^' And so 
they may," answered my informer, " if you let the parties 
choose for themselves;" which, indeed, I could not deny. 

Being returned to Philadelphia, I found the association 10 
went on swimmingly, the inhabitants that were not Quak- 
ers having pretty generally come into it, formed themselves 
into companies, and chose their captains, lieutenants, and 
ensigns,^ according to the new law. Dr. B. visited me, 
and gave me an account of the pains he had taken to 15 
spread a general good liking to the law, and ascribed 
much to those endeavours. I had had the vanity to as- 
cribe all to my Dialogue ; however, not knowing but 
that he might be in the right, I let him enjoy his opinion, 
which I take to be generally the best way in such cases. 20 
The officers, meeting, chose me to be colonel of the regi- 
ment, which I this time accepted. I forget how many 
companies we had, but we paraded about twelve hundred 
well-looking men, with a company of artillery, who had 
been furnished with six brass field pieces,- which they had 25 
become so expert in the use of as to fire twelve times in 
a minute. The first time I reviewed my regiment they 
accompanied me to my house, and would salute me with 
some rounds fired before my door, which shook down 

1 Standard bearers. 2 (^g^nnon upon wheels. 



248 Franklin's Autobiography 

and broke several glasses of my electrical apparatus. And 
my new honour proved not much less brittle ; for all our 
commissions were soon after broken by a repeal of the 
law in England. 

5 During this short time of my colonelship, being about 
to set out on a journey to Virginia, the officers of my regi- 
ment took it into their heads that it would be proper for 
them to escort me out of town, as far as the Lower Ferry. 
Just as I was getting on horseback they came to my door, 

10 between thirty and forty, mounted, and all in their uni- 
forms. I had not been previously acquainted with the 
project, or I should have prevented it, being naturally 
averse to the assuming of state on any occasion ; and I 
was a good deal chagrined at their appearance, as I could 

15 not avoid their accompanying me. What made it worse 
was, that, as soon as we began to move, they drew their 
swords and rode with them naked all the way. Some- 
body wrote an account of this to the proprietor, and it 
gave him great offence. No such honour had been paid 

20 him when in the province, nor to any of his governors ; 
and he said it was only proper to princes of the blood 
royal, which may be true for aught I know, who was, and 
still am, ignorant of the etiquette in such cases. 

This silly affair, however, greatly increased his rancour 

25 against me, which was before not a little, on account of 
my conduct in the Assembly respecting the exemption of 
his estate from taxation, which I had always opposed very 
warmly, and not without severe reflections on his mean- 
ness and injustice of contending for it. He accused me 

30 to the ministry as being the great obstacle to the King's 



Franklin's Autobiography ^ 249 

service, preventing, by my influence in the House, the 
proper form of the bills ^ for raising money, and he in- 
stanced this parade with my officers as a proof of my 
having an intention to take the government of the prov- 
ince out of his hands by force. He also applied to Sirs 
Everard Fawkener, the postmaster-general, to deprive me 
of my office ; but it had no other effect than to procure 
from Sir Everard a gentle admonition. 

Notwithstanding the continual wrangle between the 
governor and the House, in which I, as a member, had 10 
so large a share, there still subsisted a civil intercourse be- 
tween that gentleman and myself, and we never had any 
personal difference. I have sometimes since thought 
that his little or no resentment against me, for the an- 
swers it was known I drew up to his messages, might be 15 
the effect of professional habit, and that, being bred a 
lawyer, he might consider us both as merely advocates 
for contending cHents in a suit, he for the proprietaries 
and I for the Assembly. He would, therefore, sometimes 
call in a friendly way to advise with me on difficult points, 20 
and sometimes, though not often, take my advice. 

We acted in concert to supply Braddock's army with 
provisions ; and, when the shocking news arrived of his 
defeat, the governor sent in haste for me, to consult with 
him on measures for preventing the desertion of the 25 
back counties. I forget now the advice I gave ; but I 
think it was, that Dunbar should be written to, and pre- 
vailed wdth, if possible, to post his troops on the frontiers 
for their protection, till, by reinforcements from the 

1 Laws. 



250 " Franklin's Autobiography 

colonies, he might be able to proceed on the expedition. 
And, after my return from the frontier, he would have had 
me undertake the conduct of such an expedition with 
provincial troops, for the reduction of Fort Duquesne, 
5 Dunbar and his men being otherwise employed ; and he 
proposed to commission me as general. I had not so 
good an opinion of my military abilities as he professed to 
have, and I believe his professions must have exceeded 
his real sentiments ; but probably he might think that 

10 my popularity would facilitate the raising of the men, and 
my influence in Assembly, the grant of money to pay 
them, and that, perhaps, without taxing the proprietary 
estate. Finding me not so forward to engage as he ex- 
pected, the project was dropped, and he soon after left 

15 the government, being superseded by Captain Denny. 
Before I proceed in relating the part I had in pubhc 
affairs under this new governor's administration, it may 
not be amiss here to give some account of the rise and 
progress of my philosophical reputation. 

20 In 1 746, being at Boston, I met there with a Dr. Spence, 
who was lately arrived from Scotland, and showed me 
some electric experiments. They were imperfectly per- 
formed, as he was not very expert ; but, being on a subject 
quite new to me, they equally surprised and pleased me. 

25 Soon after my return to Philadelphia, our library company 

received from Mr. P. Collinson, Fellow of the Royal Society 

of London, a present of a glass tube, with some account 

of the use of it in making such experiments. I eagerly 

' seized the opportunity of repeating what I had seen at 

30 Boston ; and^ by much practice, acquired great readiness 



Franklin's Autobiography 251 

in performing those, also, which we had an account of 
from England, adding a number of new ones. I say 
much practice, for my house was continually full, for some 
time, with people who came to see these new wonders. 

To divide a little this incumbrance among my friends, 5 
I caused a number of similar tubes to be blown at our 
glass-house, with which they furnished themselves, so that 
we had at length several performers, x^mong these, the 
principal was 'Mr. Kinnersley, an ingenious neighbour, who, 
being out of business, I encouraged to undertake showing 10 
the experiments for money, and drew up for him two 
lectures, in which the experiments were ranged in such 
order, and accompanied with such explanations in such 
method, as that the foregoing should assist in compre- 
hending the following. He procured an elegant appa- 15 
ratus for the purpose, in which all the little machines 
that I had roughly made for myself were nicely formed 
by instrument- makers. His lectures were well attended, 
and gave great satisfaction ; and after some time he went 
through the colonies, exhibiting them in every capital 20 
town, and picked up some money. In the West India 
islands indeed, it was with difficulty the experiments 
could be made, from the general moisture of the air. 

Obliged as we were to Mr. Colhnson for his present of 
the tube, etc., I thought it right he should be informed of 25 
our success in using it, and wrote him several letters con- 
taining accounts of our experiments. He got them read 
in the Royal Society, where they were not at first thought 
w^orth so much notice as to be printed in their Transac- 
tions. One paper, which I wrote for ^Ir. Kinnersley, on 30 



252 Franklin's Autobiography 

the sameness of lightning with electricity, I sent to Dr. 
Mitchel, an acquaintance of mine, and one of the mem- 
bers also of that society, who wrote me word that it had 
been read, but was laughed at by the connoisseurs.^ The 
5 papers, however, being shown to Dr. Fothergill, he thought 
them of too much value to be stifled, and advised the 
printing of them. Mr. Collinson then gave them to Cave 
for publication in his Gentleman' s Magazine; but he 
chose to print them separately in a pamphlet, and Dr. 

10 Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave, it seems, judged 

rightly for his profit, for by the additions that arrived 

afterward they swelled to a quarto volume, which has 

had five editions, and cost him nothing for copy-money.^ 

It was, however, some time before those papers were 

15 much taken notice of in England. A copy of them hap- 
pening to fall into the hands of the Count de Buffon, a 
philosopher deservedly of great reputation in France, 
and, indeed, all over Europe, he prevailed with M. DaH- 
bard to translate them into French, and they were printed 

20 at Paris. The publication offended the Abbe Nollet, pre- 
ceptor in Natural Philosophy to the royal family, and 
an able experimenter, who had formed and pubhshed a 
theory of electricity, which then had the general vogue. 
He could not at first believe that such a work came 

25 from America, and said it must have been fabricated by 
his enemies at Paris, to decry his system. Afterwards, 
having been assured that there really existed such a person 
as Franklin at Philadelphia, which he had doubted, he 
wrote and pubhshed a volume of Letters, chiefly addressed 
1 Experts. ^ Royalty paid to the author. 



Franklin's Autobiography 253 

to me, defending his theory, and denying the verity of my 
experiments, and of the positions deduced from them. 

I once purposed answering the abbe, and actually began 
the answer ; but, on consideration that my writings con- 
tained a description of experiments which any one might 5 
repeat and verify, and if not to be verified, could not be 
defended ; or of observations offered as conjectures, and 
not deHvered dogmatically, therefore not laying me under 
any obligation to defend them ; and reflecting that a dis- 
pute between two persons, writing in different languages, 10 
might be lengthened greatly by mistranslations, and 
thence misconceptions of one another's meaning, much 
of one of the abbe's letters being founded on an error in 
the translation, I concluded to let my papers shift for 
themselves, beUeving it was better to spend what time 1 15 
could spare from public business in making new experi- 
ments, than in disputing about those already made. I 
therefore never answered M. Nollet, and the event gave 
me no cause to repent my silence ; for my friend M. le 
Roy, of the Royal Academy of Sciences, took up my cause 20 
and refuted him ; my book was translated into the Italian, 
German, and Latin languages ; and the doctrine it con- 
tained was by degrees universally adopted by the philoso- 
phers of Europe, in preference to that of the abbe ; so 
that he lived to see himself the last of his sect, except 25 

Monsieur B , of Paris, his eVeve and immediate 

disciple. 

What gave my book the more sudden and general 
celebrity, was the success of one of its proposed ex- 
periments, made by Messrs. Dalibard and De Lor at 30 



254 Franklin's Autobiography 

Marly, for drawing lightning from the clouds. This 
engaged the public attention everywhere. M. de Lor, 
who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy, and 
lectured in that branch of science, undertook to repeat 

5 what he called the Philadelphia Experiments ; and, after 
they were performed before the king and court, all the 
curious of Paris flocked to see them. I will not swell this 
narrative with an account of that capital experiment, nor 
of the infinite pleasure I received in the success of a 

lo similar one I made soon after with a kite at Philadelphia, 
as both are to be found in the histories of electricity. 

Dr. Wright, an English physician, when at Paris, wrote 
to a friend, who was of the Royal Society, an account of 
the high esteem my experiments were in among the 

15 learned abroad, and of their wonder that my writings 
had been so little noticed in England. The society, on 
this, resumed the consideration of the letters that had 
been read to them ; and the celebrated Dr. Watson drew 
up a summary account of them, and of all I had afterwards 

20 sent to England on the subject, which he accompanied with 
some praise of the writer. This summary was then printed 
in their Transactions ; and some members of the society 
in London, particularly the very ingenious Mr. Canton, 
having verified the experiment of procuring lightning 

25 from the clouds by a pointed rod, and acquainting them 
with the success, they soon made me more than amends 
for the slight with which they had before treated me. 
Without my having made any application for that honour, 
they chose me a member, and voted that I should be ex- 

30 cused the customary payments, which would have amounted 



Franklin's Autobiography 255 

to twenty-five guineas ; and ever since have given me their 
Transactions gratis. They also presented me with the gold 
medal of Sir Godfrey Copley for the year 1753, the de- 
livery of which was accompanied by a very handsome 
speech of the president, Lord Macclesfield, wherein I was 5 
highly honoured. 

Our new governor, Captain Denny, brought over for 
me the before-mentioned medal from the Royal Society, 
which he presented to me at an entertainment given him 
by the city. He accompanied it with very polite expres- 10 
sions of his esteem for me, having, as he said, been long 
acquainted with my character. After dinner, when the 
company, as was customary at that time, were engaged in 
drinking, he took me aside into another room, and ac- 
quainted me that he had been advised by his friends in 15 
England to cultivate a friendship wdth me, as one who was 
capable of giving him the best advice, and of contributing 
most effectually to the making his administration easy ; 
that he therefore desired of all things to have a good 
understanding with me, and he begged me to be assured 20 
of his readiness on all occasions to render me every ser- 
vice that might be in his power. He said much to me, 
also, of the proprietor's good disposition towards the 
province, and of the advantage it might be to us all, and 
to me in particular, if the opposition that had been so 25 
long continued to his measures was dropped, and harmony 
restored between him and the people ; in effecting which, 
it w^as thought no one could be more serviceable than 
myself; and I might depend on adequate acknowledg- 
ments and recompenses, etc., etc. The drinkers, finding 30 



256 Franklin's Autobiography 

we did not return immediately to the table, sent us a 
decanter of Madeira, which the governor made liberal 
use of, and in proportion became more profuse of his 
solicitations and promises. 

5 My answers were to this purpose : that my circum- 
stances, thanks to God, were such as to make proprietary 
favours unnecessary to me ; and that, being a member of 
the Assembly, I could not possibly accept of any ; that, 
however, I had no personal enmity to the proprietary, 

10 and that, whenever the public measures he proposed should 
appear to be for the good of the people, no one should 
espouse and forward them more zealously than myself; 
my past opposition having been founded on this, that the 
measures which had been urged were evidently intended 

15 to serve the proprietary interest, with great prejudice to 
that of the people ; that I was much obliged to him (the 
governor) for his professions of regard to me, and that 
he might rely on everything in my power to make his ad- 
ministration as easy as possible, hoping at the same time 

20 that he had not brought with him the same unfortunate 
instruction his predecessor had been hampered with. 

On this he did not then explain himself; but when he 
afterwards came to do business with the Assembly, they 
appeared again, the disputes were renewed, and I was as 

25 active as ever in the opposition, being the penman, first, 
of the request to have a communication of the instruc- 
tions, and then of the remarks upon them, which may be 
found in the votes of the time, and in the Historical Re- 
view I afterward published. But between us personally 

30 no enmity arose ; we were often together; he was a man 



Franklin's Autobiography 257 

of letters, had seen much of the world, and was very 
entertaining and pleasing in conversation. He gave me 
the first information that my old friend Jas. Ralph was 
still alive ; that he was esteemed one of the best poHtical 
writers in England ; had been employed in the dispute 5 
between Prince Frederic and the king, and had obtained 
a pension of three hundred a year ; that his reputation 
was indeed small as a poet. Pope having damned his 
poetry in the Dunciad; but his prose was thought as 
good as any man's. 10 

The Assembly finally finding the proprietary ob- 
stinately persisted in manacling their deputies^ with 
instructions inconsistent not only with the privileges of 
the people, but with the service of the crown, resolved to 
petition the king against them, and appointed me their 15 
agent to go over to England, to present and support the 
petition. The House had sent up a bill to the governor, 
granting a sum of sixty thousand pounds for the king's 
use (ten thousand pounds of which was subjected to the 
orders of the then general, Lord Loudoun), which the 20 
governor absolutely refused to pass, in compliance with 
his instructions. 

I had agreed with Captain Morris, of the packet at 
New York, for my passage, and my stores were put on 
board, when Lord Loudoun arrived at Philadelphia, ex- 25 
pressly, as he told me, to endeavour an accommodation 
between the governor and Assembly, that his majesty's 
service might not be obstructed by their dissensions. 
Accordingly, he desired the governor and myself to meet 

^ The governors sent over by the proprietaries. 
franklin's autobiography — 17 



258 Franklin's Autobiography 

him, that he might hear what was to be said on both sides. 
We met and discussed the business. In behalf of the 
Assembly, I urged all the various arguments that may be 
found in the public papers of that time, which were of 

5 my writing, and are printed with the minutes of the 
Assembly, and the governor pleaded his instructions; 
the bond he had given to observe them, and his ruin if 
he disobeyed, yet seemed not unwilling to hazard himself 
if Lord Loudoun would advise it. This his lordship did 

10 not choose to do, though I once thought I had nearly 
prevailed with him to do it ; but finally he rather chose 
to urge the compliance of the Assembly; and he en- 
treated me to use my endeavours with them for that 
purpose, declaring that he would spare none of the king's 

15 troops for the defence of our frontiers, and that, if we did 
not continue to provide for that defence ourselves, they 
must remain exposed to the enemy. 

I acquainted the House with what had passed, and, 
presenting them with a set of resolutions I had drawn up, 

20 declaring our rights, and that we did not rehnquish our 
claim to those rights, but only suspended the exercise of 
them on this occasion through /^r<r<f, against which we pro- 
tested, they at length agreed to drop that bill, and frame 
another conformable to the proprietary instructions. 

25 This of course the governor passed, and I was then at 
liberty to proceed on my voyage. But, in the meantime, 
the packet had sailed with my sea-stores, which was some 
loss to me, and my only recompense was his lordship's 
thanks for my service, all the credit of obtaining the 

30 accommodation falling to his share. 



Franklin's Autobiography 259 

He set out for New York before me ; and, as the time 

for dispatching the packet-boats was at his disposition, 
and there were two then remaining there, one of which, 
he said, was to sail very soon, I requested to know the 
precise time, that I might not miss her by any delay ofs 
mine. His answer was, " I have given out that she is to 
sail on Saturday next ; but I may let you know, enfre 
nous, that if you are there by Monday morning, you will 
be in time, but do not delay longer." By some accidental 
hindrance at a ferry, it was ]\Ionday noon before 1 10 
arrived, and I was much afraid she might have sailed, as 
the wind was fair ; but I was soon made easy by the 
information that she was still in the harbour, and would 
not move till the next day. One would imagine that I 
was now on the very point of departing for Europe. 1 15 
thought so; but 1 was not then so well acquainted with 
his lordship's character, of which indecision was one of 
the strongest features. I shall give some instances. It 
was about the beginning of April that I came to New 
York, and I think it was near the end of June before we 20 
sailed. There were then two of the packet-boats, which 
had been long in port, but were detained for the general's 
letters, which were always to be ready to-morrow. 
Another packet arrived ; she too was detained ; and, 
before we sailed, a fourth was expected. Ours was the 25 
first to be dispatched, as having been there longest. 
Passengers were engaged in all, and some extremely 
impatient to be gone, and the merchants uneasy about 
their letters, and the orders they had given for insurance 
(it being war time) for fall goods ; but their anxiety availed 30 



26o Franklin's Autobiography 

nothing ; his lordship's letters were not ready ; and yet 
whoever waited on him found him always at his desk, 
pen in hand, and concluded he must needs write 
abundantly. 
5 Going myself one morning to pay my respects, I found 
in his antechamber one Innis, a messenger of Philadelphia, 
who had come from thence express with a packet from 
Governor Denny for the general. He delivered to me 
some letters from my friends there, which occasioned my 

lo inquiring when he was to return, and where he lodged, 
that I might send some letters by him. He told me he 
was ordered to call to-morrow at nine for the general's 
answer to the governor, and should set off immediately. 
I put my letters into his hands the same day. A fort- 

15 night after I met him again in the same place. ^^ So, 
you are soon returned, Innis?" ^'Returned ! no, I am 
no gone yet." "How so?" "I have called here by 
order every morning these two weeks past for his lord- 
ship's letter, and it is not yet ready." " Is it possible, 

20 when he is so great a writer? for I see him constantly at 
his escritoire." "Yes," says Innis, "but he is like St. 
George on the signs, always on horseback, and never 
7'ides on'' This observation of the messenger was, it 
seems, well founded ; for, when in England, I understood 

25 that Mr. Pitt gave it as one reason for removing this 
general, and sending Generals Amherst and Wolfe, that the 
minister 7iever heard from him, and could not know what 
he was doing. 

This daily expectation of sailing, and all the three 

30 packets going down to Sandy Hook, to join the fleet there. 



Franklin's Autobiography 261 

the passengers thought it best to be on board, lest by 
a sudden order the ships should sail, and they be left 
behind. There, if I remember right, we were about six 
weeks, consuming our sea-stores, and obliged to procure 
more. At length the fleet sailed, the general and all his 5 
army on board, bound to Louisburg, with the intent to 
besiege, and take that fortress ; all the packet-boats in 
company ordered to attend the general's ship, ready to 
receive his dispatches when they should be ready. We 
were out five days before we got a letter with leave to 10 
part, and then our ship quitted the fleet and steered for 
England. The other two packets he still detained, carried 
them with him to Halifax, where he stayed some time to 
exercise the men in sham attacks upon sham forts, then 
altered his mind as to besieging Louisburg, and returned 15 
to New York, with all his troops, together with the two 
packets above mentioned, and all their passengers ! 
During his absence the French and savages had taken 
Fort George, on the frontier of that province, and the 
savages had massacred many of the garrison after capitu- 20 
lation. 

I saw afterwards in London Captain Bonnell, who com- 
manded one of those packets. He told me that, when 
he had been detained a month, he acquainted his lordship 
that his ship was grown foul, to a degree that must neces- 25 
sarily hinder her fast saiHng, a point of consequence for a 
packet-boat, and requested an allowance of time to heave 
her down and clean her bottom. He was asked how long 
time that would require. He answered, three days. 
The general replied, " If you can do it in one day, I give 30 



262 Franklin's Autobiography 

leave ; otherwise not ; for you must certainly sail the day 
after to-morrow. " So he never obtained leave, though 
detained afterwards from day to day during full three 
months. 
5 I saw also in London one of Bonnell's passengers, who 
was so enraged against his lordship for deceiving and 
detaining him so long at New York, and then qarrying 
him to Halifax and back again, that he swore he would 
sue him for damages. Whether he did or not, I never 

lo heard; but, as he represented the injury to his affairs, it 
was very considerable. 

On the whole, I wondered much how such a man came 
to be intrusted with so important a business as the con- 
duct of a great army ; but, having since seen more of the 

15 great world, and the means of obtaining, and motives 
for giving places, my wonder is diminished. General 
Shirley, on whom the command of the army devolved 
upon the death of Braddock, would, in my opinion, if 
continued in place, have made a much better campaign 

20 than that of Loudoun in 1 757, which was frivolous, expen- 
sive, and disgraceful to our nation beyond conception ; 
for, though Shirley was not a bred soldier, he was sensible 
and sagacious in himself, and attentive to good advice 
from others, capable of forming judicious plans, and quick 

25 and active in carrying them into execution. Loudoun, 
instead of defending the colonies with his great army, left 
them totally exposed while he paraded idly at HaHfax, by 
which means Fort George was lost ; besides, he deranged 
all our mercantile operations, and distressed our trade, by 

30 a long embargo on the exportation of provisions, on pre- 



Franklin's Autobiography 263 

tence of keeping supplies from being obtained by the 
enemy, but in reality for beating down their price in 
favour of the contractors, in whose profits, it was said, 
perhaps from suspicion only, he had a share. And, when 
at length the embargo was taken off, by neglecting to 5 
send notice of it to Charlestown, the Carohna fleet was 
detained near three months longer, whereby their bottoms 
were so much damaged by the worm ^ that a great part of 
them foundered in their passage home. 

Shirley was, I believe, sincerely glad of being relieved 10 
from so burdensome a charge as the conduct of an army 
must be to a man unacquainted with military business. I 
was at the entertainment given by the city of New York 
to Lord Loudoun, on his taking upon him the command. 
Shirley, though thereby superseded, was present also. 15 
There was a great company of officers, citizens, and 
strangers, and, some chairs having been borrowed in the 
neighbourhood, there was one among them very low, 
which fell to the lot of Mr. Shirley. Perceiving it as I 
sat by him, I said, '' They have given you, sir, too low a 20 
seat." " No matter," says he, ^^ Mr. Franklin, I find a 
low seat the easiest." 

While I was, as afore mentioned, detained at New York, 
I received all the accounts of the provisions, etc., that I 
had furnished to Braddock, some of which accounts could 25 
not sooner be obtained from the different persons I had 
employed to assist in the business. I presented them to 
Lord Loudoun, desiring to be paid the balance. He 
caused them to be regularly examined by the proper 
1 Teredo, the ship-worm which perforates submerged wood. 



264 Franklin's Autobiography 

officer, who, after comparing every article with its voucher, 
certified them to be right ; and the balance due for which 
his lordship promised to give me an order on the pay- 
master. This was, however, put off from time to time ; 
5 and, though I called often for it by appointment, I did not 
get it. At length, just before my departure, he told me 
he had, on better consideration, concluded not to mix 
his accounts with those of his predecessors. *^ And you," 
says he, ^' when in England, have only to exhibit your 

10 accounts at the treasury, and you will be paid immedi- 
ately." 

I mentioned, but without effect, the great and unex- 
pected expense 1 had been put to by being detained 
so long at New York, as a reason for my desiring to 

15 be presently paid ; and on my observing that it was 
not right I should be put to any further trouble or delay 
in obtaining the money I had advanced, as I charged no 
commission for my service. "O, Sir," says he, ''you 
must not think of persuading us that you are no gainer ; 

20 we understand better those affairs, and know that every 
one concerned in supplying the army finds means, in the 
doing it, to fill his own pockets." I assured him that was 
not my case, and that I had not pocketed a farthing; but 
he appeared clearly not to beheve me ; and, indeed, I 

25 have since learned that immense fortunes are often made 
in such employments. As to my balance, I am not paid 
it to this day, of which more hereafter. 

Our captain of the packet had boasted much, before 
we sailed, of the swiftness of his ship ; unfortunately, 

30 when we came to sea, she proved the dullest of ninety- 



Franklin's Autobiography 265 

six sail, to his no small mortification. After many con- 
jectures respecting the cause, when we were near another 
ship almost as dull as ours, which, however, gained upon 
us, the captain ordered all hands to come aft, and stand 
as near the ensign staff as possible. We were, pas- 5 
sengers included, about forty persons. While we stood 
there, the ship mended her pace, and soon left her 
neighbour far behind, which proved clearly what our 
captain suspected, that she was loaded too much by the 
head. The casks of water, it seems, had been all placed 10 
forward ; these he therefore ordered to be moved further 
aft, on which the ship recovered her character, and proved 
the sailer in the fleet. 

The captain said she had once gone at the rate of 
thirteen knots, which is accounted thirteen miles per 15 
hour. We had on board, as a passenger. Captain Ken- 
nedy, of the Navy, who contended that it was impossible, 
and that no ship ever sailed so fast, and that there must 
have been some error in the division of the log-line, or 
some mistake in heaving the log. A wager ensued be- 20 
tween the two captains, to be decided when there should 
be sufficient wind. Kennedy thereupon examined rigor- 
ously the log-hne, and, being satisfied with that, he de- 
termined to throw the log himself. Accordingly some 
days after, when the wind blew very fair and fresh, and 25 
the captain of the packet, Lutwidge, said he believed she 
then went at the rate of thirteen knots, Kennedy made 
the experiment, and owned his wager lost. 

The above fact I give for the sake of the following 
observation. It has been remarked, as an imperfection ^o 



266 Franklin's Autobiography 

in the art of ship-building, that it can never be known, 
till she is tried, whether a new ship will or will not be a 
good sailer ; for that the model of a good-sailing ship 
has been exactly followed in a new one, which has proved, 

5 on the contrary, remarkably dull. I apprehend that this 
may partly be occasioned by the different opinions of 
seamen respecting the modes of lading, rigging, and sail- 
ing of a ship ; each has his system ; and the same vessel, 
laden by the judgement and orders of one captain, shall 

lo sail better or worse than when by the orders of another. 
Besides, it scarce ever happens that a ship is formed, fitted 
for the sea, and sailed by the same person. One man 
builds the hull, another rigs her, a third lades and sails 
her. No one of these has the advantage of knowing all 

IS the ideas and experience of the others, and, therefore, 
cannot draw just conclusions from a combination of the 
whole. 

Even in the simple operation of sailing when at sea, I 
have often observed different judgements in the officers 

20 who commanded the successive watches, the wind being 
the same. One would have the sails trimmed sharper or 
flatter than another, so that they seemed to have no cer- 
tain rule to govern by. Yet I think a set of experiments 
might be instituted, first, to determine the most proper 

25 form of the hull for swift saihng ; next, the best dimen- 
sions and properest place for the masts ; then the form 
and quantity of sails, and their position, as the wind may 
be ; and, lastly, the disposition of the lading. This is an 
age of experiments, and I think a set accurately made and 

30 combined would be of great use. I am persuaded, there- 



Franklin's Autobiography 267 

fore, that ere long some ingenious philosopher will under- 
take it, to whom I wish success. 

We were several times chased in our passage, but out- 
sailed everything, and in thirty days had soundings. We 
had a good observation, and the captain judged himself so 5 
near our port, Falmouth, that, if we made a good run in the 
night, we might be off the mouth of that harbour in the morn- 
ing, and by running in the night might escape the notice of 
the enemy's privateers, who often cruised near the entrance 
of the channel. Accordingly, all the sail was set that we 10 
could possibly make, and the wind being very fresh and 
fair, we w^ent right before it, and made great way. The 
captain, after his observation, shaped his course, as he 
thought, so as to pass wide of the Scilly Isles ; but it seems 
there is sometimes a strong indraught setting up St. 15 
George's Channel, which deceives seamen and caused the 
loss of Sir Cloudesley Shovel's squadron. This indraught 
was probably the cause of w^hat happened to us. 

We had a watchman placed in the bow, to whom they 
often called, ^' Look well out before there,'' and he as often 20 
answered, '^ Ay, ay'' \ but perhaps had his eyes shut, and 
was half asleep at the time, they sometimes answering, as 
is said, mechanically ; for he did not see a hght just be- 
fore us, which had been hid by the studding-sails from the 
man at the helm, and from the rest of the watch, but by 25 
an accidental yaw of the ship was discovered, and occa- 
sioned a great alarm, we being very near it, the light ap- 
pearing to me as big as a cart wheel. It was midnight, 
and our captain fast asleep ; but Captain Kennedy, jump- 
ing upon deck, and seeing the danger, ordered the ship to 30 



268 Franklin's Autobiography 

wear round, all sails standing ; an operation dangerous to 
the masts, but it carried us clear, and we escaped ship- 
wreck, for we were running right upon the rocks on which 
the hghthouse was erected. This deliverance impressed 

5 me strongly with the utility of lighthouses, and made me 
resolve to encourage the building more of them in America 
if I should live to return there. 

In the morning it was found by the soundings, etc., 
that we were near our port, but a thick fog hid the land 

lo from our sight. About nine o'clock the fog began to rise, 
and seemed to be lifted up from the water hke the curtain 
at a play-house, discovering underneath, the town of Fal- 
mouth, the vessels in its harbour, and the fields that sur- 
rounded it. This was a most pleasing spectacle to those 

15 who had been so long without any other prospects than 
the uniform view of a vacant ocean, and it gave us the 
more pleasure as we were now free from the anxieties 
which the state of war occasioned. 

I set out immediately, with my son, for London, and 

20 we only stopped a little by the way to view Stonehenge on 
Salisbury Plain, and Lord Pembroke's house and gardens, 
with his very curious antiquities at Wilton. We arrived 
in London the 27th of July, 1757.^ 

As soon as I was settled in a lodging Mr. Charles had 

25 provided for me, I went to visit Dr. Fothergill, to whom I 
was strongly recommended, and whose counsel respecting 

1 Here terminates the Autobiography ^ as published by Wm. 
Temple Franklin and his successors. What follows was Written in 
the last year of Dr. Franklin's life, and was first printed (in English) 
in Mr. Bigeiow's edition of 1868. 



Franklin's Autobiography 269 

my proceedings I was advised to obtain. He was against 
an immediate complaint to government, and thought the 
proprietaries should first be personally applied to, w^ho 
might possibly be induced by the interposition and persua- 
sion of some private friends, to accommodate matters 5 
amicably. I then waited on my old friend and corre- 
spondent, J\Ir. Peter Collinson, who told me that John Han- 
bury the great Virginia merchant, had requested to be in- 
formed when I should arrive, that he might carry me to 
Lord Granville's, who was then President of the Council 10 
and wished to see me as soon as possible. I agreed to 
go with him the next morning. Accordingly Mr. Hanbury 
called for me and took me in his carriage to that noble- 
man's, who received me with great civility ; and after 
some questions respecting the present state of affairs in 15 
America and discourse thereupon, he said to me : ^^ You 
Americans have wrong ideas of the nature of your con- 
stitution ; you contend that the king's instructions to his 
governors are not laws, and think yourselves at liberty to 
regard or disregard them at your own discretion. But 20 
those instructions are not like the pocket instructions 
given to a minister going abroad, for regulating his con- 
duct in some trifling point of ceremony. They are first 
draw^n up by judges learned in the laws ; they are then 
considered, debated, and perhaps amended in Council, 25 
after which they are signed by the* king. They are then, 
so far as they relate to you, the laio of the land, for the king 
is the Legislator of the Colonies." I told his lord- 
ship this was new doctrine to me. I had always under- 
stood from our charters that our laws were to be made 3^ 



270 Franklin's Autobiography 

by our Assemblies, to be presented indeed to the king 
for his royal assent, but that being once given the king 
could not repeal or alter them. And as the AssembHes 
could not make permanent laws without his assent, so 
5 neither could he make a law for them without theirs. He 
assured me I was totally mistaken. I did not think so, 
however, and his lordship's conversation having a little 
alarmed me as to what might be the sentiments of the 
court concerning us, I wrote it down as soon as I returned 

10 to my lodgings. I recollected that about 20 years before, 
a clause in a bill brought into Parliament by the ministry 
had proposed to make the king's instructions laws in the 
colonies, but the clause was thrown out by the Commons, 
for which we adored them as our friends and friends of 

15 liberty, till by their conduct towards us in 1765 it seemed 
that they had refused that point of sovereignty to the king 
only that they might reserve it for themselves. 

After some days. Dr. Fothergill having spoken to the 
proprietaries, they agreed to a meeting with me at Mr. 

20 T. Penn's house in Spring Garden. The conversation 
at first consisted of mutual declarations of disposition 
to reasonable accommodations, but I suppose each party 
had its own ideas of what should be meant by reason- 
able. We then went into consideration of our several 

25 points of complaint, which I enumerated. The pro- 
prietaries justified their conduct as well as they could, 
and I the Assembly's. We now appeared very wide, 
and so far from each other in our opinions as to dis- 
courage all hope of agreement. However, it was con- 

30 eluded that I should give them the heads of our com- 



Franklin's Autobiography 271 

plaints in writing, and they promised then to consider 
them. I did so soon after, but they put the paper 
into the hands of their soHcitor, Ferdinand John Paris, 
who managed for them all their law business in their 
great suit with the neighbouring proprietary of Mary- 5 
land, Lord Baltimore, which had subsisted 70 years, 
and wrote for them all their papers and messages in 
their dispute with the Assembly. He was a proud, 
angry man, and as I had occasionally in the answers 
of the Assembly treated his papers with some severity, 10 
they being really weak in point of argument and haughty 
in expression, he had conceived a mortal enmity to me, 
which discovering itself whenever we met, I decHned 
the proprietary's proposal that he and I sliould discuss 
the heads of complaint between our two selves, and 15 
refused treating with any one but them. They then by 
his advice put the paper into the hands of the Attorney 
and Sohcitor-General for their opinion and counsel upon 
it, where it lay unanswered a year wanting eight days, 
during which time I made frequent demands of an 20 
answer from the proprietaries, but without obtaining any 
other than that they had not yet received the opinion 
of the Attorney and Solicitor-General. What it was 
when they did receive it I never learned, for they did 
not communicate it to me, but sent a long message to 25 
the Assembly drawn and signed by Paris, reciting my 
paper, complaining of its want of formality, as a rude- 
ness on my part, and giving a flimsy justification of 
their conduct, adding that they should be willing to 
accommodate matters if the Assembly would send out 30 



272 Franklin's Autobiography 

some person of candour to treat with them for that purpose, 
intimating thereby that I was not such. 

The want of formahty or rudeness was, probably, my 
not having addressed the paper to them with their assumed 

5 titles of True and Absolute Proprietaries of the Province 
of Pennsylvania, which I omitted as not thinking it 
necessary in a paper, the intention of which was only 
to reduce to a certainty by writing, what in conversa- 
tion I had delivered viva voce, 

10 But during this delay, the Assembly having prevailed 
with Governor Denny to pass an act taxing the proprie- 
tary estate in common with the estates of the people, 
which was the grand point in dispute, they omitted 
answering the message. 

15 When this act however came over, the proprietaries, 
counselled by Paris, determined to oppose its receiving 
the royal assent. Accordingly they petitioned the king 
in Council, and a hearing was appointed in which two 
lawyers were employed by them against the act, and 

20 two by me in support of it. They alleged that the 
act was intended to load the proprietary estate in order 
to spare those of the people, and that if it were suffered 
to continue in force, and the proprietaries who were in 
odium with the people, left to their mercy in propor- 

25 tioning the taxes, they would inevitably be ruined. We 
repUed that the act had no such intention, and would 
have no such effect. That the assessors were honest 
and discreet men under an oath to assess fairly and 
equitably, and that any advantage each of them might 

30 expect in lessening his own tax by augmenting that of 



Franklin's Autobiography 273 

the proprietaries was too trifling to induce them to 
perjure themselves. This is the purport of what I 
remember as urged by both sides, except that we insisted 
strongly on the mischievous consequences that must 
attend a repeal, for that the money, ^100,000, beings 
printed and given to the king's use, expended in his 
service, and now spread among the people, the repeal 
would strike it dead in their hands to the ruin of many, 
and the total discouragement of future grants, and the 
selfishness of the proprietors in sohciting such a general 10 
catastrophe, merely from a groundless fear of their estate 
being taxed too highly, was insisted on in the strongest 
terms. On this. Lord Mansfield, one of the counsel, 
rose, and beckoning me took me into the clerk's chamber, 
while the lawyers were pleading, and asked me if I was 15 
really of opinion that no injury would be done the pro- 
prietary estate in the execution of the act. I said 
certainly. *' Then," says he, "you can have little objec- 
tion to enter into an engagement to assure that point." 
I answered, " None at all." He then called in Paris, and 20 
after some discourse, his lordship's proposition was ac- 
cepted on both sides ; a paper to the purpose was drawn 
up by the Clerk of the Council, which I signed with 
Mr. Charles, who was also an Agent of the Province 
for their ordinary affairs, when Lord Mansfield returned 25 
to the Council Chamber, where finally the law was allowed 
to pass. Some charges were however recommended and 
we also engaged they should be made by a subsequent 
law, but the i\ssembly did not think them necessary ; for 
one year's tax having been levied by the act before 30 
franklin's autobiography — 18 



274 Franklin's Autobiography 

the order of Council arrived, they appointed a committee 
to examine the proceedings of the assessors, and on this 
committee they put several particular friends of the pro- 
prietaries. After a full inquiry, they unanimously signed a 

5 report that they found the tax had been assessed with 
perfect equity. 

The Assembly looked into my entering into the first 
part of the engagement, as an essential service to the Prov- 
ince, since it secured the credit of the paper money then 

lo spread over all the country. They gave me their thanks 
in form when I returned. But the proprietaries were 
enraged at Governor Denny for having passed the act, and 
turned him out with threats of suing him for breach of 
instructions which he had given bond to observe. He, 

15 however, having done it at the instance of the general, 
and for His Majesty's service, and having some powerful 
interest at court, despised the threats and they were never 
put in execution. . . . [Unfinished.] 



NOTES 

The heavy marginal figures stand for page, and the lighter ones for line. 

39 : I. Copie d'un Projet, etc. "Copy of a remarkable project 
of Benjamin Franklin, — first sketch of his Memoirs. The additions 
in red ink are in Franklin's handwriting." 

45 : I. The Autobiography. The text adopted in this edition 
is that of Mr. John Bigelow. It differs from the original manu- 
script only in cases of archaic spelling and in the fact that no atten- 
tion is paid to Franklin's practice of writing nearly every noun 
with a capital letter. 

45 : 2. Twyford. The country seat of Jonathan Shipley, " the 
good bishop " of St. Asaph's, was called Chilbolton, and was at 
Twyford, a small village near Winchester in Hampshire. In this 
house, in a room still called " Franklin's room," the Autobiography 
was begun. The bishop was a constant friend of America, and lent 
important aid to the colonists by writing " A speech intended to 
have been spoken on the Bill for altering the Charters of the Colony 
of Massachusetts Bay." 

45 '- 3- Son. William Franklin, royal governor of New Jersey, 
and the natural son of Dr. Franklin. He was born about 1730 
and died in 181 3. He was a loyalist, and suffered imprisonment 
during the Revolution. 

47 : 15. Ecton. It is an interesting coincidence that the ances- 
tors of Franklin and Washington came from the same part of Eng- 
land. The Franklins were blacksmiths at Ecton in Northampton- 
shire, the Washingtons were gentlemen of Sulgrave in the same 
county. It is very likely that for generations and perhaps centuries 
the Franklins shod the Washingtons' horses before any member 
of either family came to America. 

47 : 18. Franklin. A franklin in England was originally a free- 

275 



276 Notes 

holder, who had extensive possessions, and was eligible to the dig- 
nities of sheriff, knight of the shire, etc. 

48:17. Esquire. A country gentleman. 

48 : 19. Scrivener. A scribe, a professional penman, one who 
draws contracts, deeds, etc. 

48 : 24. Old Style. According to the old calendar. The new 
calendar was not adopted in England until 1752. Franklin was born 
January 6, Old Style; when the calendar was adopted, his birthday 
was carried forward to January 17. He was wont to say that he 
cherished a kindly feeling for his old nominal birthday, and so cele- 
brated upon both dates. 

48 ; 30. Transmigration. The passage of the soul at death 
from one body to another. 

50 : 5. Joint-stool. A stool made of parts fitted or joined to- 
gether. 

50 : 9. Apparitor. A messenger or officer who served the sum- 
mons of an ecclesiastical court. 

50: 16. Outed. Ejected from the pulpit. Such clergymen, who 
would not conform to the Church of England, were obliged to resort 
secretly to conventicles or chapels for dissenting congregations. 

51 : 15. Sectaries. Members of a religious sect. 

51 : 28. Sherburne. Now known by the name of Nantucket. 
The verses are from A Lookiiig Glass for the Ti?nes, by Peter Folger 
(1617-1690). 

52 : 2. The grammar-school. That is, the Boston Latin School. 
52 : 3. Tithe. Franklin was the tenth (and youngest) son. 
52:12. Character. His method or system of shorthand. 

52 : 29. Father . . . business. His shop was at the corner of 
Hanover and Union streets, in Boston. It was known by the sign 
of the Blue Ball. 

53 : 4. Filling . . . candles. That is, by pouring the hot grease 
into tin moulds in which wicks had been placed. 

55 : 21. Marble over their grave. A more durable monu- 
ment was erected over the grave in the Old Granary Burial 
Ground, in 1827, by the voluntary subscriptions of a large number 



Notes 277 



of the citizens of Boston. It is an obelisk of granite twenty-one 
feet high; on one side is the name of Franklin in large bronze 
letters, and a little below is a tablet of bronze, upon which is 
engraved Dr. Franklin's original inscription. 

57 : 21. R. Burton. Robert Burton, compiler of Historical 
Ra7'ities itt London and Westminster^ etc. These popular compila- 
tions were published from 1681 to 1736 under the name of Nathan- 
iel Crouch. 

57 : 22. Chapmen's books. Small books sold by pedlars. 

57 : 23. Polemic. Controversial. 

57 : 30. Essay on Projects. The projects related to banks, 
assurance companies, asylums, academies, etc. It is a very rare 
book, and was published in London about 1698. 

58 : I. Essays to do Good. "Bonifacius. An essay upon the 
good that is to be devised and designed by those who desire to 
answer the great end of life and to do good while they live." 
Boston, 1 710. 

Franklin wrote to Cotton Mather's son : " If I have been, as 
you seem to think, a useful citizen, the public owes all the advan- 
tage of it to that book." 

58 : 13. Indentures. The contract between master and appren- 
tice was drawn up on two sheets of paper, with indented edges 
which matched. The master kept one copy, and the apprentice 
the other. 

59 : 7. Grub-street. A street in London, now called Milton 
Street, once the abode of poor authors. 

60 : 26. Spectator. A series of miscellaneous periodical essays 
by Steele and Addison, begun in London in 171 1. 

62 : 10. Tryon, Thomas (1634-1703), was the author of The 
Way to Health, Long Life and Happijiess, or a Discourse of Tem- 
perance. London, 1691. 

63:10. Locke on Human Understanding. JohnLocke (1632- 
1704) published in 1690 his famous Essay concerning Htiman 
Understandirig. 

63 : II. Messrs. du Port RoyaL In the seventeenth century 



278 Notes 

a religious community of Jansenists devoted to education lived at 
the Cistercian abbey of Port-Royal, a few miles from Versailles. 

63 : 17. Socratic Method. An adroit method of questioning 
by which the questioner convicts his adversary of ignorance, or 
compels him to confess himself in error. 

63 ; 23. Shaftesbury and Collins. Anthony Ashley Cooper, 
third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713), author of Ckai-acterisHcs of 
Men. Anthony Collins (i 676-1 729), author of Discourse on Free- 
thinkings and A Philosophical Enquiry concerning Human Liberty^ 

65 : 2. Pope says. See Essay on Criticism, line 574. 

65 : 22. New England Courant. This was written from 
memory, and is not correct. The New England Courant was the 
fourth newspaper that was published in America. The first was 
the Boston News- Letter , April 24, 1704. The Boston Gazette fol- 
lowed, December 21, 1 7 19, and then came The American Weekly 
Mercury, Philadelphia, December 22, 1719, and The New England 
Courant, August 21, 1721. 

67 : 8. Demeaned. Humiliated or debased. 

67 : 19. Gave offense. The Courant iox June 11, 1722, con- 
tained a fictitious letter from Newport stating that a pirate ship 
had been seen off Block Island, and that the authorities were 
about to dispatch two vessels in pursuit of her. The letter 
reflected sarcastically upon the dilatoriness of the government. 

70 : 6. William Bradford (1658-1752) set up the first print- 
ing press in Philadelphia in 1685. He sided with Governor Keith 
in his quarrel with the authorities, and printed h\?> Appeal to the 
People, He was arrested for seditious libel and his press was 
confiscated. He removed to New York in 1693. 

70 : II. Aquila Rose was a young English journeyman printer. 
He was secretary of the Assembly and a writer of tolerable verse. 

70 : 17. The Kill. The creek. It is the passage on the north 
and west of Staten Island which Franklin would have followed to 
Amboy, New Jersey. 

72 : 27. Cotton, Charles (1630-1687). Scarronides, or the First 
Book of Virgil Travestie, 1664. To travesty is to burlesque. 



Notes 279 



75 : 2. My future wife. Deborah Read was then eighteen 
years of age. 

75 • 5- Walnut street. Philadelphia was then (1723) a city 
of seven thousand inhabitants. It was not closely built beyond 
Fourth Street. 

75 : 15. Great meeting-house stood at the corner of Second 
Street and Market Street, on ground given by William Penn to 
the Quakers. 

76 : 16. Keimer. He is believed to have been descended from 
the French Protestants of the Cevennes, who were persecuted by 
Louis XIV. 

85 : 22. Burnet, William, born at The Hague, March, 1688; 
died in Boston, September 19, 1729. He was appointed Governor 
of New York and New Jersey, April 19, 1720. 

88 : 19. Annis was commander of the London-Hope. 

91 : 16. James Ralph wrote excellent pamphlets and execrable 
poetry. Pope refers to him in the Dunciad : 

" Silence, ye wolves ! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, 
And makes night hideous — answer him, ye owls." 

In England Ralph wrote political pamphlets which gained him 
reputation and a pension. 

95 : 14. Andrew Hamilton. A distinguished lawyer who had 
been attorney-general of Pennsylvania. He purchased the ground 
now comprised within Independence Square, Philadelphia, whereon 
to erect a ** suitable building " to be used as a legislative hall. Inde- 
pendence Hall was not completed until after Hamilton's death. 

95 : 17. Iron work. The Principio Iron Works. 

95 : 21. James, since governor. He was governor from 1748 to 
1754, and from 1759 to 1763. 

98 : 8. Little Britain. A street near St. Paul's churchyard. 

98 : 15. Pistoles. A gold coin, worth about four dollars. 

98 : 19. Wilks. Robert Wilks, actor, was manager of the 
Drury Lane Theatre from 1 709-1 732. 

98 : 25. Hackney writer. A hireUng author who does all 
kinds of literary drudgery. 



2 8o Notes 

g8 : 26. Temple. The Inner, Middle, and Outer Temple were 
the law schools and residences of lawyers. 

99 : 12. WoUaston, William (1660-1724). The Religion of 
Nature Delineated. London. Printed by S. Palmer, 1725. 

99 : 17. A small number. Only two copies are now known to 
exist. 

100 : 6. Dr. Mandeville, Bernard (i67o(?)-i733), author of 
The Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices Public Benefits, 1 7 14. 

100 : 9. Dr. Pemberton. Henry Pemberton (i 694-1 771) was 
employed by Newton to superintend the third edition of The Prin- 
cipia. He published A View of Sir I. Newton'' s Philosophy, 1728. 

100 : 15. Asbestos. A fibrous mineral composed of separable 
filaments. It is incombustible and is used for various fire-proofing 
purposes. 

100 : 16. Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1752). A scientist and col- 
lector, whose curiosities and rarities became the nucleus of the 
British Museum. , 

loi : 17. Young's Satires. Edward Young (1681-1765), 
English poet. 

" Ye restless men ! who pant for letter'd praise, 
With whom would you consult to gain the bays ? 
With those great authors whose fam'd works you read? 
'Tis well ; go, then, consult the laurel'd shade, 
What answer will the laurel'd shade return ? 
Hear it and tremble, he commands you burn 
The noblest works his envy'd genius writ. 
That boast of naught more excellent than wit. 
If this be true, as 'tis a truth most dread, 
' Woe to the page which has not that to plead ! 
Fontaine and Chaucer, dying, wish'd unwrote 
The sprightliest efforts of their wanton thought : 
Sidney and Waller, brightest sons of fame, 
Condemn'd the charm of ages to the flame." 

—Young, Vol. HI. Epist. II. 

loi : 24. Watts's. A printing office on the south side of Wild 



Notes 281 

Court, near the eastern end, and three doors from King's Head 
Yard. The press at which FrankHn worked is now in the Patent 
Office at Washington. 

104 : 15. St. Monday. Blue ^Monday; a holiday taken by idle 
and dissipated workmen. 

106 : 17. Saint Veronica. Meeting Christ on the way to Cal- 
vary, she offered him her handkerchief to wipe the blood from his 
face. Ever after, the handkerchief bore the likeness of Christ. 

107 : I. Don Saltero. James Salter lived in Cheyne Walk, 
Chelsea. His house, a barber shop, was known as Don Saltero's 
coffee-house. The curiosities were in glass cases, and constituted an 
amazing and motley collection — a petrified crab from China, a 
"lignihed hog," Job's tears, Madagascar lances, William the Con- 
queror's sword, relics of the Queen of Sheba, and fragments of 
" Bob " Crusoe. 

107 : 4. Chelsea to Blackfriar's. About three miles. 

107 : 9. Thevenot^s motions. Thevenot, a P^ench author, 
wrote a treatise on The Art of Siuinuning, translated into English 
in 1789. 

108 : 20. Pennsylvania money. One pound Pennsylvania cur- 
rency was a little more than three-fifths of an English pound. The 
amount in question was about one hundred and sixty dollars. 

109 : I. Sir William Wynd ham (1687-1740). A political dis- 
ciple of Bolingbroke. The two sons referred to by Franklin were 
Sir Charles Wyndham, second Earl of Egremont, and Percy O'Brien, 
Earl of Thomond. 

113 : 20. Crimp^s bill. Advertisements to decoy men into emi- 
grating. 

118 : 13. Dissenting way. In the manner of those who do 
not conform to the Church of England. 

•118 : 17. Deism . . . Deists. Belief in the existence of a per- 
sonal God, but with a denial of revelation and of the authority of 
the Christian church. 

118 : 19. Boyle's Lectures. Hon. Robert Boyle (1627-1691), 
natural philosopher and chemist. His writings procured him an 



282 Notes 

immense reputation. He established the Boyle Lecture, ** designed 
to prove the truth of the Christian religion among infidels.'' 

119 : 2. Lines of Dryden. See (Edipus, iii. i. 293. The first 
part is erroneously quoted, probably by confusion with a correspond- 
ing passage in Pope. 

Dryden wrote : — 

" Whatever is, is in its causes just ; 
Since all things are by Fate. But purblind man " etc. 

120 : 15. Thomas Godfrey. A glazier, born in Bristol, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1704; died in Philadelphia, 1749. He received a present 
from the Royal Society for his improvement upon Davis's quad- 
rant. 

121 : 25. Junto. A secret society, or faction, or cabal; here a 
club or society. 

125 : 21. His paper. Under Keimer's management the paper was 
called The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences and 
Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin took it over October 2, 1729, 
from which time it was called The Pennsylvania Gazette. 

126 : 6. Dispute. Governor Burnet was instructed in England 
that his salary should be £ioo\ the legislature refused to pay this 
amount, asserting it to be their privilege to fix the amount of 
salary. 

131 : 4. Whitemarsh, Thomas, founder, in January, 1732, of 
The South Carolina Gazette, published in Charleston, S.C. 

131 : 25. Barbados. One of the West India Islands. 

132 : 26. Riders. Postboys who on horseback carried the mails 
across the country. 

136 14. Company. It is called the Library Company of Phila- 
delphia. It was founded in 1731 and incorporated in 1742. 
James Logan bequeathed to it his fine library of classical litera- 
ture, — a collection so valuable and rare that Fabricius, a great book 
collector in Hamburg, said that it contained books that neither 
price nor prayers could buy. 

155 : 19. Pjrthagoras. "A Greek philosopher, 600 B.C. He 



Notes 283 

required his disciples to consider daily certain moral precepts. The 
time which he recommends for this work is about even or bedtime, 
that we may conclude the action of the day with the judgement 
of conscience, making the examination of our conversation an 
evening song to God. Wherein have I transgressed ? What 
have I done? What duty have I omitted? So shall we measure 
our lives by the rules above mentioned, if to the law of the mind 
we join the judgement of reason." — BiGELOW. 

157:20. Addison's Cato. Joseph Addison's play Gz/^ was acted 
with great success at Drury Lane, in 1713. 

157 : 26. vitae, etc. O philosophy, thou guide of life ! O 
thou searcher after virtue and banisher of vice ! One day spent 
virtuously and in obedience to thy precepts is worth an immor- 
tality of sin." — Tusc» Quaest. iv. 31. 

166 : 3. Passy. A suburb of Paris. 

171 : 7. Beginning of 1735. The correct dates are June 23 
and July 7, 1730. 

172 : 8. One of my journeymen. The printer was Lewis 
Timothy, a French refugee to Holland, who thence came with 
his wife to America. He published The South Carolina Gazette, 
February 2, 1734, until his death in 1738. It was then conducted 
by his widow and her son, Peter Timothy. 

174 : 3. A single copy. For a list of copies see A List of 
Books written by, or relating to Benjamin Franklin, by Paul 
Leicester Ford, 1889, p. 15. 

174 : II. Dr. Foster. An eminent divine, born 1697, died 

1753- 

" Let modest Foster, if he will, excel 
Ten metropolitans in preaching well." — PoPE. 

177:3. Inoculation. The intentional introduction of the virus 
of smallpox in order to induce a mild and local attack of the 
disease, and render the subject immune from future contagion. 
It was a practice which began in Europe about 17CX), and was 
superseded at the close of the eighteenth century by vaccination. 
Franklin's son was named Francis Folsom. 



284 Notes 

182 : 12. Union Fire Company. It was formed December 7, 
1736. 

182 : 26. Whitefield [pronounced Whit-field], George. A 
leader of the Methodists. He was born in Gloucester, England, 
in 1 7 14. He came to Georgia in 1738, and again in 1739. He 
preached in New York and Pennsylvania, mainly in Presbyterian 
meeting-bouses and in the open air. He died in 1770. 

183 : 19. Westminster Hall, part of the ancient palace of 
Westminster. It adjoins the Houses of Parliament in London. 

186 : 6. Benezet, Anthony (i 713-1784). A Philadelphian 
who devoted himself to the abolition of the slave-trade, and to 
the emancipation and education of the negroes. 

187 : 30. Litera scripta manet. The written letter remains. 
189 : 28. War against Great Britain. *' The war of Jenkins's 

ear," as it was called, broke out in October, 1739. Much irritation 
had been caused by the attempt of Spain to keep all foreign vessels 
out of the Caribbean Sea. The mutilation of an English ship-cap- 
tain named Jenkins excited popular fury that resulted in war. A 
little later the Spanish war merged in the war of the Austrian 
Succession. 

191 : 8. Lottery. Money for all public purposes was usually 
raised by lotteries. 

191 : 19. Governor Clinton, George, was the youngest son 
of Francis, sixth Earl of Lincoln. He was colonial governor ' 
of New York from 1741-1751. He died July 10, 1761. 

195 : II. Logan, James ( 1674-175 1 ), accompanied Penn to 
America in 1699 and was the business agent for the Penn family. 
He was a man of great learning, and bequeathed his invaluable 
library to the city of Philadelphia. 

197 : 28. Dunkers. A sect of German pietists who settled in 
Pennsylvania. Their name is derived from their practice of bap- 
tizing their converts by plunging. 

201 : 3. Francis, Tench. Uncle of Sir Philip Francis, the re- 
puted author of the Junius Letters. He emigrated from England 
to Maryland, and became attorney for Lord Baltimore. He removed 



Notes 285 



to Philadelphia, and was attorney-general of Pennsylvania from 
1741 to 1755. -^^ ^^^^ ^^ Philadelphia, August 16, 1758. 

208 : 29. Gilbert Tennent (i 703-1 764), came to America with 
his father, the Reverend William Tennent, and taught for a time in 
the " Log College," from which sprang the College of New Jersey. 

212 : 9. Vauxhall. Pleasure gardens in London. At night 
they were brilliantly lighted with lamps, and were the favourite re- 
sort of the pleasure-loving population of London. 

212 : 18. Fothergill, John. English physician, 1712-1780, who 
enjoyed a lucrative practice in London; was also a botanist whose 
collection was equalled only by the Royal Gardens at Kew. 

213 : 5. Craven street. A short street leading out of the Strand 
at Charing Cross. In this street, at number 7, Franklin lived in the 
house of Mrs. Stevenson. 

214 : 9. Westminster, was then a separate city; it is now a 
part of London. 

217:12. War with France. \Yar between England and France 
over disputed possessions in America. It soon became a part of 
the great Seven Years' War, anJ is known in American history as 
the French and Indian War. 

217 : 14. Lords of Trade. A Board of Trade was organized in 
the seventeenth century to have the care of the colonies in 
America, and to put things into a form and order of government 
that would always preserve these countries in obedience to the 
crown. 

217 : 15. Six Nations. A confederation of Indian tribes. 

222 : I. Sancho Panza. Don Quixote's squire in Cervantes's 
novel. 

223 : 3. Crown Point. A cape on the western side of Lake 
Champlain. The French took and fortified it in 1 731. Attacks 
were made upon it in 1755 and 1756, and it was finally taken in 

1759. 

223 : 20. Loan Office. A colonial office to receive loans in aid 
of the government. 

224 : 20. General Braddock. Edward Braddock, general and 



286 Notes 

commander-in-chief in North America. He was mortally wounded 
in the expedition against Fort Duquesne. 

232 17. George Croghan. An Indian trader in Pennsylvania. 
He was captain of provincials in Braddock's expedition, 1755. He 
died in Passyunk, Pennsylvania, in 1782. 

232 : 15. Fort Duquesne. Fort Pitt, afterwards Pittsburgh. 

232 : 16. Frontenac. Fort Frontenac was built by Count 
Frontenac in 1673. It is at the foot of Lake Ontario, and is now 
called Kingston. 

240 : 16. Spangenburg, Augustus Gottlieb (i 704-1 792). A 
bishop of the Moravian Church in Pennsylvania. 

241 : Minisink. The falls of the Minisink are on Stony 
Creek. 

245 : 29. Common stock. The community was based upon a 
socialistic principle, and all the earnings went into a common 
fund. 

249 : 5. Sir Everard Fawkener (i 684-1 758). A London mer- 
chant. He entertained Voltaire at his house at Wandsworth when 
the latter visited England in 1726. He was sent as ambassador to 
Constantinople. In 1745 he was appointed joint postmaster-gen- 
eral in conjunction with the Earl of Leicester. 

250 : 26. CoUinson, Peter (i 694-1 768). Naturalist and anti- 
quary. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and engaged 
in business as a mercer, trading largely with the colonies. He was 
active in founding the Society of Antiquaries. He considerably 
improved the English system of horticulture. 

250 : 26. The Royal Society. The oldest and most celebrated 
scientific society in Great Britain. It was founded in 1660, *'for 
improving natural knowledge." 

252 : 7. Cave, Edward (i 691-1754). Printer; began the pub- 
lication of the Gentleman' s Magazine at St. John's Gate, Clerken- 
well, in 1 731, and thereby fixed the type of the monthly periodical. 

252 : 16. BulEon. George Louis Leclerc, Count de Buffon 
( 1 707-1 788), naturalist, author of a vast and famous work, Hisioire 
naturelle. 



Notes 287 

252 : 18. Dalibard, at the request of Buffon, had made a transla- 
tion into French of Franklin's letters to Collinson. He placed in a 
garden at Marly-la- Ville, six leagues from Paris, a pointed rod of 
iron forty feet high, supported upon an electrical stand. Sparks 
were drawn from it in a thunder storm, May 10, 1752. M. de Lor 
repeated the experiment at his house in Paris, iSIay 18, 1752. 

254 : I. Marly. A village a few^ miles from Versailles. 

255 ' 3. Sir Godfrey Copley. The donor of a fund of ;!fioo, 
" in trust for the Royal Society of London for improving natural 
knowledge." 

257 • 5- Dispute. This refers to the bitter quarrel between 
George II and his son Frederick, Prince of Wales. The latter died 
before his father. 

257 : 9. Dunciad. A satirical poem, published anonymously 
by Alexander Pope, in 1728, enlarged by him in 1729, and included 
among his works in 1735. 

260 : 25. Mr. Pitt. William Pitt, prime minister of England in 
1756; created Lord Chatham. 

261 : 6. Louisburg. " The Gibraltar of North America," in Cape 
Breton, fortified by the French, taken by the Massachusetts men in 
1745, and permanently occupied by the English in 1758. 

267 : 3. Chased. That is, by French naval vessels. 

267 : 17. Sir Cloudesley Shovel (i 650-1 707). Some of the 
ships of his squadron were wrecked upon the rocks of the Scilly 
Islands, October 22, 1707, the fleet being set to the north by the 
action of the current. 

268:20. Stonehenge. Stone circles, probably of Druidic origin, 
of great antiquity, upon Salisbury Plain. 

268 : 22. Wilton. A small town, three miles from Salisbury. 
Near the town is Wilton House, the seat of the Earl of Pembroke, 
where there is a famous collection of pictures and of Greek and 
Roman sculptures. 



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